Announcement

**GNEP** · 14 April 2004, 06:59

http://www.beyond3d.com/previews/nvidia/nv40/

**Maggi** · 14 April 2004, 07:00

dunno ...

at least those 3D Fart scores look migthy fishy to me

any bets on how many "optimizations" NV put into their drivers thie time ?

also, the principle of using a HS that covers up a whole PCI slot, plus the use of two (!) external powerconnectors makes me think that card is already OCed to hell and back.

I guess, the next card will be an 6900Ultra with built-in Peltier cooling or something ...

**Maggi** · 14 April 2004, 07:38

Originally posted by GNEP
http://www.beyond3d.com/previews/nvidia/nv40/

thanx for the link ...

The sticker on the back of the board marks the RAM being used on this board as Samsung RAM, which we assume is Samsung's K4J55323QF as this is the only GDDR-3 memory they currently display. The speed also shows that the standard operation is 500MHz, though the specifications of 6800 Ultra call for 550MHz memory which indicates that, by default, the reference boards are running the memory with a 10% overclock. 500MHz GDDR-3 RAM does not get that hot, and doesn't necessarily require cooling, so perhaps the cooling over the RAM here is to ensure the overclock remains stable.

how come that I am not surprised ?

**Helevitia** · 14 April 2004, 08:36

Originally posted by DGhost
of course, you are still forgetting that it is doing the same level of performance at 2x the AA mode as the 9800XT, and the same level of performance as the 5950 Ultra which had AA and AF disabled entirely.

I wasn't forgetting that. I just expected more performance out of the 6800U. After looking at more reviews today, it is only Farcry whichs suffers this problem. All other benchmarks show up to 2x performance increase with apples-to-apples comparison.

EDIT: OK, most of the other farcry benches at other sites show a significant increase.

I have to congratulate Nvidia. For the first time since they started making Graphics cards, I actually like this one. It seems that all of their ducks are in order this time. Even if ATI comes out with a Superior video card, the 6800U will still be a great option IMO. It'll be interesting to see how the quality issues and driver optimizations play out over the next month or two.

Dave