6800 BFG Ultra OC Review - by Dirty Larry

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Dirty Larry's Review of BFG 6800 Ultra OC Graphics Card.

My "Test System" is as follows:

• AMD Athlon XP 3000 (Not Overclocked.)
  
• 1 Gig Corsair 3200 400 Mhz DDR Ram
  
• Asus A7N8X-X Motherboard rev 2 (non-deluxe version) 1009 Bios
  
• Antec TruControl 550w PSU
  
• Windows XP Professional SP1
  

NOTE - With a card such as the 6800 Ultra, this system is considered "low end" these days.

Lets Open The The Box

As you can see, this baby is hot off the presses. BFG did not even have the time to put it in its true "retail" packaging, so it came in a plain white cardboard box with some Text on it, as seen on the Top Left of the First Image. The text on the box makes it very clear that you need aty least a 480W PSU and that this card does take up 2 PCI Slots.

The Packaged Box Included:

• The Card
  
• CD Rom Packet (Bottom Left)
  
• 2 DVI to VGA Connectors
  
• 2 "Y" Molex Power Connectors
  

I thought it was very sweet that they included not 1, but 2, DVI to VGA Connectors, since the card is Dual DVI.

The 6800 Ultra OC Specs At A Glance:

• Bus Type AGP (PCI Express support)
  
• Memory 256MB GDDR3
  
• Core Clock? 425MHz (vs. 400MHZ standard)
  
• Memory Clock 1100MHz (effective)
  
• 638 million vertices/sec. / 5.2GB/sec. memory bandwidth
  
• 16 Pipelines, ETC.

CD Rom Packet Included:>

• Driver & Apps Disk*
  
• Games Demo Disk -Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow DEMO, Silent Storm DEMO, Painkiller DEMO
  
• Quick Start Guide (Which I never opened)
  
• Lifetime Warranty Card
  

* Drivers included were WHQL'd 61.21 that I had not seen anywhere else before this. I used these Drivers first. Some Apps included where nVDVD Software, a 3D Demo, and some Custom BFG Windowsblinds Skins. Disk is useless pretty much except for Drivers.

Installation>

Installing it was a piece of cake. I already had the 2 PSU Molex Connectors designated for the card before installation, so I just hooked her up no problems at all. But was I shocked, this card is truly really huge. It is massive.

Here is the first image of everything spoken of above:

First "Test." First Run of 3D Mark 03 with the included 61.21 Drivers.>

Okay, At this point I am already psyched. Although I realize 3d Mark is nothing but a benchmark, An 11197 on my First Run!!!:woot:: I never saw that Space Scene run so smoothly and juts look so damn nice. Ladies & Gentlemen, this card does handle Direct X perfectly. I knew it simply just from watching the tests. I could not help but feel in my mind, that Nvidia is indeed back, and the true graphic cards wars have only begun...

However I could not help but notice during the 3D Mark 03 run-through, that the CPU tests were still as slow as ever, which I expected, and I will touch on that a little bit later.

Second "Test." Second Run of 3D Mark 03, with the WHQL'd 61.36 Drivers available from Guru3d.com.>

Since I gained 173 more points in 3d Mark, for the duration of this review, I used the 61.36's for all other tests.

Lets Get Onto Some Benchmarks!!!>

All Below Tests Done On Default Speeds of 425 Core Clock frequency and 1.10 GHZ Memory Clock and the 61.36 Drivers mentioned above.

All FPS were done using FRAPS and the manual logging option Available within it. I also decided to make my own Charts outlining my results.

Far Cry>

Far Cry Benchmarks In Text Format>

High Graphic Settings (Application Controlled)

Antialiasing - None/ Anistropic Filtering - 1 (Above In Red Bar)

1280 * 1024 - 50 FPS

1600 * 1200 - 48 FPS

1280 * 1024 - Test Not Run

Antialiasing - High / Anistropic Filtering - 4 (Above In Green Bar)

1280 * 1024 - 48 FPS

1600 * 1200 - 33 FPS

1280 * 1024 - Test Not Run

Very High Graphic Settings (Application Controlled)

Antialiasing - High / Anistropic Filtering - 4 (Above In Orange Bar)

1024 * 768 - 43 FPS

1280 * 1024 - 41 FPS

1600 * 1200 - 33 FPS

[bFar Cry Conclusion>[/b]>

I am definitely happy with these results, as before I could only run Far Cry at 1024 * 768 with Medium To Low Graphic Settings. As you can also see there is not much difference at all in the Above Numbers when Far Cry's in Game graphics are set to High or Very High. There is almost no difference at all when Anistropic Filtering is on or off at 1280 * 1024, as you get 48 - 50 fps. I was hoping to have the latest patch for my benchmark which utilized the SM 3.0 technology, but it was unavailable as I am sure you all know. If the patch comes out soon, I will add to this Review with new #s.

This benchmark as the first however to backup the fact that I am very positive that I am not seeing the full potential of my card because of my CPU. More on that in my Conclusion.

Unreal Tournament 2004>

UT2K4 Benchmarks In Text Format>

Absolutely All In Game Graphic Settings Maxed Out (Holy Sh*t Time)

Antialiasing - None / Anistropic Filtering - None (Default "Global" Setting Controlled by Nvidia Display Properties Control Panel)

1600 * 1200 - 97 FPS

1280 * 1024 - 123 FPS

1024 * 768 - 143 FPS

Antialiasing - 4x / Anistropic Filtering - 4x (Controlled by Nvidia Display Properties Control Panel)

1600 * 1200 - 95 FPS

1280 * 1024 - 105 FPS

1024 * 768 - 125 FPS

Antialiasing - 8xS Anistropic Filtering - 16x (Controlled by Nvidia Display Properties Control Panel)

1600 * 1200 - 38 FPS

1280 * 1024 - 65 FPS

1024 * 768 - 86 FPS

[bUT2K4 Benchmark Conclusion>[/b]>

This is right around what i expected to get in Unreal. The only questionably slow FPS is the 1600 * 1200 with Antialiasing and Anistropic Filtering truly turned up all of the way. Even so you still get a very playable 38 FPS, and the game just looks so damn good at 1600 * 1200 at those settings. With that said, I do think I can live with my AA set to 4 and my AF set to 4, at a 1600 * 1200 resolution, getting 95 fps.

One thing to also note, this numbers were obtained through the Single Player Mode. When I went Online, the FPS Numbers varied greatly from server to server, so please keep that in mind.

Painkiller>

Painkiller Benchmarks In Text Format>

All In Game Graphic Settings Maxed Out (Insane)

Multisampling - None / Texture Filtering - Trilinear (Application Controlled)

1600 * 1200 - 98

1280 * 1024 - 90

1024 * 768 - 97

Multisampling - *6 (Highest Allowed In Game) / Texture Filtering - Anistropic High (Highest Allowed In Game)

1600 * 1200 - 80

1280 * 1024 - 96

1024 * 768 - 99

[bPainkiller Benchmark Conclusion>[/b]>

This game just ran and looked gorgeous. Not one hiccup at all, and the numbers pretty much say even with AA & Af bumped you are still looking at very high frame rates.

Interesting Note: with Multisampling set to None and Texture Filtering set to Trilinear, 1600 * 1200 scored higher than both 1280 * 1024 & 1024 * 768. This shows the card can easily handle the load when it is needed and in this case actually performs better when more is demanded of it.

Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising>

Joint Ops Benchmarks In Text Format>

All In Game Graphic Settings Maxed Out

In Game Full Screen Anti Alias - OFF / In Game Texture Filtering - Trilinear

1600 * 1200 - 40 FPS

1280 * 1024 - 41 FPS

1024 * 768 - 42 FPS

In Game Full Screen Anti Alias - 2 / In Game Texture Filtering - Anistropic

1600 * 1200 - 40 FPS

1280 * 1024 - 42 FPS

1024 * 768 - 41 FPS

In Game Full Screen Anti Alias - 4 / In Game Texture Filtering - Anistropic High

1600 * 1200 - 25 FPS

1280 * 1024 - 35 FPS

1024 * 768 - 43 FPS

[bJoint Ops Benchmark Conclusion>[/b]>

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Joint Ops scored pretty much exactly the same across the board, no matter what the settings. Except for the Application Controlled AA & AF Maxed out on 1600 * 1200. And the numbers are indeed quite low, although they were much higher than with my older card I had.

Out of every game benchmarked, Joint ops truly shows how at times it does not matter what card you have in your system, your CPU can and will indeed be a bottleneck. Obviously this game does not like my measly AMD Athlon XP 3000. I look forward to re-testing this game once I do upgrade my CPU.

Also note I did not realize there were 2 patches I had not installed until after I ran my benchmarks, although I am not holding my breath that these patches would do much at all as far as greatly improving these numbers.

Final "Test." Third Run of 3D Mark 03, with the WHQL'd 61.36 Drivers available from Guru3d.com.

This time with an Overclock of 450 MHz Core Clock, and 1.15 GHz Memory Clock Frequencies>

With a relatively minor OC, I was able to achieve almost 500 more points in 3D Mark 03 than when at default Frequencies. (493 points to be exact). Unfortunately, I was all benchmarked out by then, so I do not run any of the Benchmarks for the games with this OC, and since I have set my card back to Default settings, I just wanted to see what a little difference in OC made. I am sure if I decided to OC both my card and CPu again, I can come close to 12500 to 13000 no problem.

Final Words>

I personally am beyond happy with the performance of this card, and I feel like I am ready for all games coming out in the future, and for a good time to come as well for that matter. I am confident everything I throw out this card will be handled very well indeed.

The benchmarks only confirmed what I already knew, and that was that my CPU would indeed be a Bottleneck. I did fully expect this. However, I am waiting to upgrade for quite some time however, as I am really intrigued by the nforce 4 chipset, PCI X, and now that I have one half of the needed components, possible even SMI down the road.;))

I hope this Review helped some people, and I hope it shows that although Yes, owning one of these cards with a High End Intel or AMD 64 CPU is the true way to experience the power of the 6800's, you can still absolutely enjoy and gain major performance, and I do mean major, even with a "lower" end CPU.(Y))

Dirty Larry

Edited July 7, 2004 by DirtyLarry

[JohnO]

Great review! :drool:

overclock the card and youll hit 12k easy

[giga Veteran]

Wow great review Larry. (Y)

[jerzdawg]

great review.. very thorough.. makes me think of ways I can afford to buy this card now... well done larry... dont forget to come back and post some in game screen shots.!!

[youm0nt Veteran]

mmm all these graphic card reviews makes me want to get a new one. :whistle: great review. (Y)

[ForeverUnknown]

damn it people it's not pci x!

[giga Veteran]

^ Its PCI-E!

[Monkey Man]

lolol

Nice review man you must have sum money to burn :p

[TrickFinlay2]

nice review,makes me want one

[OptiPlex]

NOTE - With a card such as the 6800 Ultra, this system is considered "low end" these days.

Explain.

WTF? 6800 Ultra is low end? :blink:

[youm0nt Veteran]

Explain.

WTF? 6800 Ultra is low end? :blink:

no,he thinks his system is low end,not the card. ;)

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Explain.

WTF? 6800 Ultra is low end? :blink:

You took that line out of context actually.

It is following my System Specs, so I was referring to the rest of my system, more specifically the CPU...

Why you may ask? Pretty much all of the benchmarks I have seen of the 6800's and the X800's that are done on the major review sites, they are all using at least a Athlon 64 3200 and/or a very High End Intel Processor.

So when I said low end, I meant the rest of my system excluding the card according to the "industry standards" of high end gaming systems these days.

To almost everyone else. Truly Thanks for the positive feedback. It is great to know that my hours and hours of work that was spent on this Review was worth it. (Y)

EDIT - I see this has already been cleared it all up. Thanks youmOnt ;)

[Dejon]

Great review on the card. It's making me lean more towards getting a nvidia over ati.

[Phil Gates]

lets see how high you can OC it ;) if it OCs really well then i'll be switching back to Nvidia

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Latest OC

461 Core Clock Frequency

1.16 Ghz Memory Clock Frequency

Almost at 12,000...

[DoNuTs]

I've got the 61.71 Drivers any my card hits 9850 + -

I'll try some other drivers later. And one great thing about my "package" i got three games with it :laugh:

Prince of persia

Commandos 3

Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness ( Now i got three copies of it :rolleyes: )

Oh ya, by the way. Great review (Y)

[DoNuTs]

61.36

61.21

Edited July 9, 2004 by DoNuTs

[DoNuTs]

I wanted to beat your score :laugh: so i Overclocked my card a few MHz

I've added a Compare URL in my signature

Edited July 9, 2004 by DoNuTs

[.Atlantis]

Seems he kicked your ass. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r. DoNuT is teh manz0r.v

[j005u]

bhwawawawa.

[SimplyPotatoes]

good review, thank you for including other benchmarks besides pos 3dmark2003

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Okay, Since it is Saturday, I am really going to play around with my card today.

I have been posting on other forums and getting advice from other 6800 Ultra Owners, and almost all advice points to using other drivers than the ones I used so far, so since they are only drivers, I am going to play around and see what happens.

Two people also replied I should try out Direct X 9.0c... Now I am a little hesitant to do this, but I still might try it out... Dont know about all of that though I have to research it some more...

I am also still trying to figure out what is wrong with performance on Joint Operations... hopefully I get something working with that...

And to everyone who said Good or Greeat Review, thank you very much, I spent alot of time on the review and all of the kind words said about it really made it all worthwhile and then-some (Y)

Also @ DoNuTs, close, but I still did get a 11875 which you have yet to beat ;)

[ANova]

The only way to get DX9.0c is to install SP2, but since it should hit RTM in two weeks you may want to wait.

[DoNuTs]

Also @ DoNuTs, close, but I still did get a 11875 which you have yet to beat ;)

Easy :laugh:

It's an extra 200 marks

I'll just add an extra few MHz to my OC. And remember mines a STOCK GT

You got an OVERCLOCKED ULTRA :p

Ya, i'm stupid :rofl:

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Easy :laugh::

It's an extra 200 marks

I'll just add an extra few MHz to my OC. And remember mines a STOCK GT

You got an OVERCLOCKED ULTRA:pp

Ya, i'm stupid :rofl::

You know, I didnt realize you just had a GT until later on and I couldnt Edit my post anymore :pinch::

So yeah, considering you got the GT, Ill admit, you beat me :blush::

Your still silly though :laugh::

:DD What type of CPU are you using? Other specs like Ram and all of that? I know thats holding me back tremendously I think...

Also, I installed SP2(which by the way no problems at all with that) to see if Direct X 9.0c really made any difference, and although I am still young in my test phasing, my default #D Mark score is 300 points higher with Direct X 9.0c and the 61.71 drivers... Today is the day I play games like a madman, my girlfriend is out all day, so I finally get some quite time to play games!!!!