NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS

Gameplay Summary

F.E.A.R.: We found that the four video cards were able to deliver a very similar gaming experience in this title at 1024x768 0xAA 8xAF with medium details. However, the GeForce 6800 GS, XFX 6800 GT and Club 3D X800XL were as smooth as each other. There was no clear winner in a blind taste test. The HIS X800GTO iTurbo was delivered a similar gaming experience, but was slightly choppier in some of the more intense parts of our gameplay evaluations.

Quake 4: The XFX 6800 GT was the fastest card in this game, with the 6800 GS following very closely behind it at 1024x768 2xAA 4xAF High Quality. These settings were very choppy on the two ATI cards, showing that the Catalyst 5.10a's do not close the gap on NVIDIA's competing parts in OpenGL titles.

City of Villains: The same could be said about City of Villains too. Even if there wasn't a bug (either driver or game - it is unclear at this time) on ATI's hardware, it is questionable whether we'd be able to apply Anti-Aliasing without sacrificing in-game detail. The GeForce 6800 GS and XFX 6800 GT delivered comparable performance in this title and were faster than the two ATI cards when using the 'High Quality' driver setting. We found that this was necessary to remove some unwanted shimmering in some instances.

Day of Defeat: Source: The GeForce 6800 GS was faster than the HIS X800GTO iTurbo, but it was not as fast as the XFX 6800 GT or the Club 3D X800XL for that matter. We had to lower the water detail and anisotropic filtering quality down in order to remove the choppiness when we were running around the anzio map.

Battlefield 2: We found that the GeForce 6800 GS delivered a gaming experience that was easily comparable to both the Club 3D Radeon X800XL and HIS X800GTO iTurbo in this title. The XFX GeForce 6800 GT was slightly faster, as we were able to set Dynamic Lighting to 'High'. Apart from that there was very little difference between the four video cards.

Rome: Total War: The GeForce 6800 GS was slightly smoother than the HIS X800GTO iTurbo in Rome: Total War, while the XFX 6800 GT and Club 3D X800XL were comparable performers with slightly higher in-game detail settings. As with City of Villains, we found that this game benefited from the High Quality driver setting, as the shimmering was unacceptable with the default driver setting.

NFS: Underground 2: All four video cards were able to play this game well at 1280x1024 0xAA 16xAF with maximum in-game details. The GeForce 6800 GS and XFX 6800 GT were as smooth as each other and you would not be able to tell the difference between the two in all honesty. On the other hand, the two ATI cards dropped below 30 frames per second on a number of occasions, which meant that the game didn't feel quite as smooth as it was on the two 6800's.

Hard launch?

It seems that NVIDIA has managed to successfully complete another hard launch. Having said that, from looking around the retailers, the board partners with cards available don't seem to be as widespread as we were expecting.

XFX are listed on both Scan and Overclockers, with the latter selling an Extreme Edition clocked at 485/1100MHz for £182. Overclockers also list the Leadtek 6800 GS for £164, but it is not in stock at the moment. It is good to see that price under the MSRP, though. We also found the Leadtek GeForce 6800 GS on Lowest for £154.99. Again though, there is no stock available. There are no listings on Dabs either - we find that rather surprising.

We also looked for GeForce 6800 GS availability in the States too. At 17:00GMT, there is no stock at Newegg, ZipZoomFly or TigerDirect. Monarch are listing the eVGA GeForce 6800 GS on pre-order. The card is available, but it is not quite as widespread as we were expecting. NVIDIA have hard launched, but we don't think that it is on quite the same scale as they launched GeForce 7800 GTX and GeForce 7800 GT.

Final Thoughts:

There are several varying prices for the GeForce 6800 GS, and we expect more board partners to announce availability over the next 24 hours or so. When NVIDIA said that they were going to hard launch this video card, we were expecting the same level of availability as we saw at the launch of the two GeForce 7-series products. Unfortunately, we haven't seen that feat pulled off to the same extent this time around.

The XFX GeForce 6800 GS Extreme Edition is going to be faster than the XFX GeForce 6800 GT looking at the clock speeds and it is around £5 cheaper than the cheapest GeForce 6800 GT we could find. We are expecting the Leadtek 6800 GS to ship at the reference clock speeds. The HIS X800GTO iTurbo is available for a little over £140 at Overclockers UK, while Leadtek's card is just under £155 on Lowest.

In all honesty, for the baseline gaming experience we've discovered with the GeForce 6800 GS, we think that extra £15 is worth the additional image quality you will gain in OpenGL titles. In other games, the X800GTO iTurbo delivers a similar gaming experience, so you have to ask yourself whether you will be playing popular titles like City of Villains and Quake 4. If you are likely to play these games, this is the obvious choice by some distance.

The GeForce 6800 GS offers comparable performance to the GeForce 6800 GT for a lot less money, in the case of Leadtek's implementation. It also delivers performance comparable to (or better than) ATI's currently available competition in this price bracket. We just hope that availability of GeForce 6800 GS will be a little more widespread by this time tomorrow.

Having said that, the comparably poor availability might be for a number of reasons. The performance that this video card delivers is not exactly ground breaking, but is more of a case of offering the same performance for less money. Thus, there is not going to be the same level of hype surrounding this card as there was when GeForce 7800 GT and GeForce 7800 GTX were launched.

Many of the NVIDIA faithful already have GeForce 6800 GT's in their systems, so they're not likely to want to spend another £160-£180 to buy a video card that performs no better than their current solution. This is in the same category as the X800GTO, in that respect. It offers an affordable upgrade to PCI-Express and is a very capable and rounded performer.

Update 18:50GMT:

• Newegg are listing eVGA's GeForce 6800 GS at $209 but are not expecting stock to arrive until Wednesday.
  
• You can buy the eVGA card direct from eVGA.com for $249.99 today.
  
• The same card is also in stock at MWave for $229.00.

Update 19:50GMT:

• Ebuyer have 100 of the XFX Extreme Gamer Edition in stock for under £180 inc. VAT.

Update 23:30GMT

• Newegg have announced that the eVGA GeForce 6800 GS is now available at $209!

Update 19:00GMT 8/11/05:

• Dabs are now listing its 'DabsValue' GeForce 6800 GS for £145.30 inc VAT - no date on stock arrival yet, though.