Replacing a 6800GT, advice needed

[Seraphic]

Hi all. I bought a Leadtek 6800GT, was initially quite impressed but then tried to overclock and noticed the stock clock speeds - they are LOWER than GT speeds! I looked this up and apprently leadtek has sneakily been sending out 'lite' versions of the GT and it seems I have one of them. The card will not overclock at all and I am extremely pissed off. The RMA request on the card has been accepted but I need to buy a new one before sending it back. There are no BFG's left in stock in the UK that I can find at the moment and I need a new card asap. I've got a bit of extra cash now and I could afford a better card. I was looking at the ATI X800XT PE, do you think it's worth paying the extra for the card or should I get another 6800GT? I'm not interested in the ultras, far too power hungry for my liking. So what do you guys suggest? Any recommendations on cards would be much appreciated. I have about £330 to spend at the very most. Thanks in advance.

[davidstone28]

Definitely the X800XT if you can find one.

[hnfmr]

Hi all. I bought a Leadtek 6800GT, was initially quite impressed but then tried to overclock and noticed the stock clock speeds - they are LOWER than GT speeds! I looked this up and apprently leadtek has sneakily been sending out 'lite' versions of the GT and it seems I have one of them. The card will not overclock at all and I am extremely pissed off. The RMA request on the card has been accepted but I need to buy a new one before sending it back. There are no BFG's left in stock in the UK that I can find at the moment and I need a new card asap. I've got a bit of extra cash now and I could afford a better card. I was looking at the ATI X800XT PE, do you think it's worth paying the extra for the card or should I get another 6800GT? I'm not interested in the ultras, far too power hungry for my liking. So what do you guys suggest? Any recommendations on cards would be much appreciated. I have about £330 to spend at the very most. Thanks in advance.

can you confirm the exact model number of your Leadtek card. I don't think they do GT with Lite version....I think they only have 6800 LE

[Seraphic]

can you confirm the exact model number of your Leadtek card. I don't think they do GT with Lite version....I think they only have 6800 LE

My card is the Leadtek WinFast A400 GT TDH - GeForce 6800 GT 256MB GDDR3. Read up about the problem here and here.

[Hobart Paving]

Didn't the NV News forums have a 'sticky' about 'fake' 6800/GTs including those which are hybrids of the offical specs?

Those Leadtek's sound like those hybrid Asus cards you can get which are specced between the 6800 and GT. Very naughy from the manufacturers, because it just confuses people.

[Incidentally, I notice the 'Nude Nalu' thread on NV forums runs into some 10 pages and has got 125,000 views. Those guys really need to get out more!]

[Seraphic]

It's pathetic that manufacturers can actually get away with it.

OK, its down to a choice between two cards both equally priced:

Gainward GeForce 6800 GT Ultra/2400 Golden Sample Goes Like Hell 256MB with Doom3 bundle.

or

Powercolor X800 XT PE 256mb OEM.

Which is it to be guys?

[LeeumH]

Powercolor X800 XT PE for sure! You'll be lucky to score what the X800 XT PE does when overclocking a 6800GT

[Seraphic]

Thanks for all of the advice. I'm still stuck between the two cards. I'm favouring the ATI because it'll run quieter, will be running at huge stock speeds (whereas the GS comes overclocked out of the box but is guaranteed) and there's a bit of room for overclocking and its VIVO. Yet the Gainward GS runs like a GT on sterioids, benches faster than an ultra, outperforms the ATI in OpenGL by silly amounts, has SM3.0 support, dual DVI and it comes with Doom3. But its going to be loud because of the dual fan cooling system even though speeds are adjustable from reviews they say even at 50% it still runs a bit louder than a stock 6800GT. Man this is a hard choice as both are the same price. But I can get the ATI a day earlier! (not that it matters). I just can't make up my mind.

[GBDarkAngel]

I was actually going to buy a PCI- E 6800GT until i read all these scary 6800 stories, now just gonna get a x800 pro vivo PCI- E i saw for £240 ish and mod it to x800xt.

[andrewuk]

Hi all. I bought a Leadtek 6800GT, was initially quite impressed but then tried to overclock and noticed the stock clock speeds - they are LOWER than GT speeds! I looked this up and apprently leadtek has sneakily been sending out 'lite' versions of the GT and it seems I have one of them. The card will not overclock at all and I am extremely pissed off. The RMA request on the card has been accepted but I need to buy a new one before sending it back. There are no BFG's left in stock in the UK that I can find at the moment and I need a new card asap. I've got a bit of extra cash now and I could afford a better card. I was looking at the ATI X800XT PE, do you think it's worth paying the extra for the card or should I get another 6800GT? I'm not interested in the ultras, far too power hungry for my liking. So what do you guys suggest? Any recommendations on cards would be much appreciated. I have about £330 to spend at the very most. Thanks in advance.

How about an Aopen Aeolus 6800GT? A mate of mine has one and is well pleased with it. Dunno how it overclocks though he's left his stock for now since it's plenty fast enough to begin with!

Best price I could find is £267 - not bad for a GT

http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.uk/invt/9105210401

Edit: Just seen that our very own Hexus has reviewed this card and it seems to overclock very nicely

http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD04MTQ=

[Seraphic]

The Aopen Aeolus 6800GT looks very good indeed judging from that review. Overclocks to Ultra speeds, so that sort of defeats the point of getting the more expensive and louder gainward. Still liking the look of the X800 XT PE though...

[Seraphic]

Ah, sod it, I think I'll be getting another nVidia. I'll probably get the AOpen Aeolus 6800GT and overclock it. The cheapest option but I think I'll miss certain features if I move to ATI (like digital vibrance, game profiles, etc).

[AaronTBE]

i got my aeolus 6800gt from a friend at ccl for 225 quid!! bargain

have overclocked mine to ultra speeds, believe you me . . .you wont be dissapointed!

kick 10 bells of sh** out of half life 2, doom 3, farcry etc. I know the ATI is gd but the price is cheaper and with the new 66.93 drivers you cant go wrong dead easy to clock up. Runs quite cool asswell.

[Seraphic]

Oh well, couldn't decide so I flipped a coin and it turned out to be an nVidia so I'm going with that. Now the next question, should I get the AOpen Aeolus 6800GT or should I go for the more expensive Gainward PowerPack! ULTRA/2400 (GOLDEN SAMPLE) GeForce 6800GT which is guaranteed to run at ultra speeds?

[RVF500]

I just took delivery of a Leadtek 6800GT which I plumped for after reading the review here at Hexus. Gonna be seriously p*ssed off with Leadtek if they've given me a 'lite' card. Not only that I'll be looking at the legal implications of their trading.

[RVF500]

According to Leadteks website the memory speed for the Winfast A400 GT TDH is 1000MHz. http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a400_2.html

If they are advertising this on their website and shipping models with this description at the lower speed then you should be able to get it changed without charge as you have been improperly sold the product. As soon as I get home I'm gonna check mine out.