NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS
Our Summary & Conclusion
Performance Summary: Throughout our entire battery of tests, the new GeForce 6800 GS proved to be an excellent performer. The GeForce 6800 GS was consistently faster than a Radeon X800 XL and it easily outpaced a Radeon X1600 XT. It performed on-par with a 16-pipeline GeForce 6800 GT in most benchmarks, and even managed to pull ahead of the GT in a handful of tests, including 3DMark05 and Half Life 2.
We're going to get right to the point here. The new GeForce 6800 GS is a winner. With an MSRP of $249 this card currently has an unbeatable price / performance ratio. It has all of the features that made the GeForce 6 series a success, and performs almost identically to a more expensive GeForce 6800 GT. Our particular sample also turned out to be an excellent overclocker. In fact, it overclocked so well, we saw performance improvements of over 20% in a couple of popular benchmarks. On top of its excellent performance in multiple categories, the GeForce 6800 GS will be available today. And if history is any indicator, the GeForce 6800 GS' street prices will drop well below the $249 MSRP rather quickly, and NVIDIA's board partners will likely release boards clock higher then the reference specifications further improving the card's price / performance ratio. There is a lot to like about the new GeForce 6800 GS. We suspect this card is going to be very popular with gamers on a budget. If you can't afford to spring for a more powerful card like a GeForce 7800 GT or Radeon X1800 XL, you'd be hard pressed to find a better value than the GeForce 6800 GS.
**Update 11/7/05 - 1:00PM EST: It seems the the GeForce 6800 GS is already in-stock and ready for sale at multiple on-line retailers. And best of all, it's already selling for well below MSRP. In fact, NewEgg's got them for $209 at the moment. (NewEgg, Monarch, MWave)
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| •_Great Price / Performance Ratio •_Relatively Low Power Consumption •_Available NOW! •_Excellent Overclocker |
•_Single DVI •_We Couldn't Test SLI |
