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[Drinky Crow]

So I got a GeForce 6800GT for Xmas. I installed it, and realized that none of the decent PC games out there really take advantage of it over my old Radeon 9800 Pro.

I need a game that doesn't suck that demonstrates how kickass the 6800 line is. Don't say Half-Life 2, because it sucked, and don't say World of Warcraft, because I just ordered it.

I like that there's no point in upgrading your PC these days from a practical perspective, but it sucks when the upgrade doesn't come out of your pocket. Boo!

 

[Mrbob]

I play at 1024 X 768 with a couple bells and whistles on, so that is why I still have my 9800PRO and will probably keep it until I do an entire system upgrade. 6800GT would be nice if you run games at 1600 X 1200 with some AA and AF applied and keeping a high framerate. Although playing at 1280 X 1024 with some AA and AF would still be much smoother on a 6800GT. But on the good side, if some games come out that choke current midline cards your 6800GT should handle it like butter.

As for a game that demonstrates dominance on the 6800, I got nothing. The 6800GT will run games at a higher frame rate but image quality is excellent on the 9800PRO so it'll be hard to find a game that looks better. Run faster, yes. But not necessarily look better.

 

[Nerevar]

I need a game that doesn't suck that demonstrates how kickass the 6800 line is. Don't say Half-Life 2, because it sucked, and don't say World of Warcraft, because I just ordered it.

Wow, I'd hate to see what you'd say about Doom 3.

 

[Drinky Crow]

I have a killer gaming LCD that's fixed at 1280x1024. I run both 4x AA and AF on it, and the performance difference between the Radeon 9800 Pro and the 6800 GT in the games I play -- DAoC Catacombs, Kohan 2, and NOLF2 -- seems utterly negligible. Benchmarks tell a different story, but given the paucity of taxing PC games out there, the WHY THE FUCK still stands.

Half-Life 2 was just dull. Doom 3, on the other hand, was mummified shitcakes.

 

[Vark]

World of Warcraft will hardly push your graphics card.

Your down to basically Doom 3, Farcry, and lots of games that aren't coming out for a while. But like Mr Bob said, you can crank just about anything thats out on the market to the max settings and the card won't hitch.

 

[Drinky Crow]

I cranked everything to max with my Radeon 9800 Pro; well, except Doom 3. Never played Farcry -- is it good? And not "good enough for Greg Kasavin", because it's AMAZING what's good for him and not for me.

 

[Vark]

Just a random side note you'll get a lot more use out of the card in the next 6-12 months as the PC is going to be getting all the games that won't run on a console anymore and are geared for Xenon etc. Once the Xenon comes out you'll start to see PC games wane again for a good 5 years.

 

[Vark]

I cranked everything to max with my Radeon 9800 Pro.

Well now you can crank it to the maxier..est.

The fixed resolution of your monitor I guess hightens the 'why the fuck' factor. Its more fun on a crt when you can run things in resolutions your monitor can't even display.

 

[Mrbob]

I have a killer gaming LCD that's fixed at 1280x1024. I run both 4x AA and AF on it, and the performance difference between the Radeon 9800 Pro and the 6800 GT in the games I play -- DAoC Catacombs, Kohan 2, and NOLF2 -- seems utterly negligible. .

The games you are playing don't really push current midline tech. So that's why you aren't seeing a big difference. I didn't mention doom 3 because I figure you probably didn't like it, but even on m 9800 PRO I can get over 30FPS average at 1280 X 1024.

I guess you could try tech demo Farcry. Or Vampire. Vampire seems to stress the source engine more than Half LIfe 2, but that is probably due to not being as optimized. It is a tough trying to find something to really push your card. Like I mentioned before, you can get games to run slightly better with your 6800GT. But the 9800PRO image clarity is so damn good the game itself probably doesn't look much better at all. You'll probably have to wait till next year when games start taking advantage of high end cards.

 

[Drinky Crow]

I can't go back to CRTs.

 

[Nerevar]

I cranked everything to max with my Radeon 9800 Pro; well, except Doom 3. Never played Farcry -- is it good? And not "good enough for Greg Kasavin", because it's AMAZING what's good for him and not for me.

If you don't mind an FPS that fall apart halfway through, rather than just letting you down with a shitty ending, you won't mind it.

 

[Vark]

I can't go back to CRTs.

But the colors love you!

I actually run both a CRT and an LCD and switch back and forth. Some games look better on one, but games that are supposedly to look dark are way too bright on the LCD and it ruins the fun.

Frycry, just download the demo. It's shooting things in a pretty jungle setting. With a shitty checkpoint save system. I know people that liked it, but i'm not really one of them, its just on the list of 'things that look pretty'.

You can always just wait for ES IV

 

[Brandon F]

Just wondering why you received that gift. I doubt no one in that family of yours imagined you of all people would have a hurting PC rig.

You could try Battle for Middle Earth or Rome. Probably look somewhat nice, tho I have yet to see them myself.

Thief 3 was a neat little game that took advantage of DX9 features to an extent.

Riddick likely looks nice on PC's now, and that new Medal of Honor game is pretty, but meh...I wouldn't even play them myself.

Tribes 3 maybe? Supposedly it has a nifty campaign...supposedly.

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

Doom3 may not look any better than on a 9800 Pro, but it sure runs hella better.

If you have to have indisputible visual proof now fire up Far Cry with pixel shader 3.0 and HD Rendering turned on and you will shit your pants. Game ain't real playable this way but it looks better than prolly anything else I've seen.

 

[XS+]

I cranked everything to max with my Radeon 9800 Pro; well, except Doom 3. Never played Farcry -- is it good? And not "good enough for Greg Kasavin", because it's AMAZING what's good for him and not for me.

Far Cry sucks.

 

[Brandon F]

Far Cry is pretty solid. Though the lategame sucked hard with all the rocket trigen on your ass.

Wait, did they release the Pixel Shader 3.0 patch? Why was it never discussed here?

 

[rastex]

Tribes: Vengeance is pretty taxing on the videocard, though I'd say unnecessarily so. But I know what you mean. I picked up an x800 pro in the summer and have been really annoyed with the lack of content to show it off. F'n PC gaming.

 

[EviLore]

Very little outside of doom 3, half-life 2, and far cry. Since you don't care for the first two, Far Cry might be worth a shot. It's pretty, but it ran fine on my 9800 pro rig. The gameplay isn't amazing by any stretch, tho.

 

[shpankey]

i agree Far Cry kinda sucked. i also agree with you about Half-Life 2

 

[akascream]

I blame Nintendo.

 

[StoOgE]

you can shank people in Riddick.

 

[tahrikmili]

Crank up your resolution to 1600x1200 with 4xMSAA 16xAF and watch your new card pwn your old card.

If you say I don't need that high resolution, then you wasted your money.

 

[Argyle]

Crank up your resolution to 1600x1200 with 4xMSAA 16xAF and watch your new card pwn your old card.

If you say I don't need that high resolution, then you wasted your money.

His LCD has a 1280x1024 resolution, in case you hadn't noticed earlier in the thread.

I guess he could turn up the AA though...

 

[Doom_Bringer]

Far Cry: The first demo; beautiful water, huge environment, nice physics. Check it out.

Riddick: Looks better than Doom III IMO!

 

[bigNman]

Yeah get some Riddick going on. More impressive than Doom 3 and it made my 9700 pro struggle at times. I would love to play that at high res with AA&AF at 60fps.

 

[Bog]

I need a game that doesn't suck that demonstrates how kickass the 6800 line is. Don't say Half-Life 2, because it sucked, and don't say World of Warcraft, because I just ordered it.

So wait. HL2 sucks, but WoW doesn't? The hell is wrong with you?

 

[Of All Trades]

EQ2 will push your card to the limit.

Rome looks nice with everything at max.

 

[marsomega]

By the way, not like you care but the 6800 GT Video Processor that is a feature is borked. Just in case you start saying "WTF!" when Video Processor on the 6600GT out does yours or it doesn't do anything. (They are either completely broken, or partially borked.)

To be honest, getting a 6800 GT this late in the game was a waste. The R520 is coming out in spring ( May'ish ) with the NV48 to answer to the R520 (July'ish). By waiting 3 months you could of had a cheaper 6800 GT or a new ultra-fied R520 or NV48....


There isn't much but the tech demo's but you are wasting your time with the Far Cry demo. The Far Cry demo will not run on the 6800 GT, you need the patch which only works for the full game. There are a bunch of new tech demos out like the new Crytek Demo but it is borked on the 6800 GT. (Just like the Fary Cry demo coincidently.)

You can run the NVIDIA demo's though. Have fun with nalu and timbury.

 

[Otaking]

I hope you enjoy your card. I myself got a GeForce 6800 Ultra for my new system and it just looks at all the current PC games right now and just smiles and moves on. Truely a nice card.

 

[teh_pwn]

There shouldn't be much of a difference on Half Life 2 between the two cards, because it runs better on Ati.

Doom 3 is a different story. It runs much faster on the 6800 GT and with richer textures. I've seen the game on my rig (9800 Pro) and a friends (6800 GT). Significant difference. Not worth the $425 he paid for it tho.

 

[teh_pwn]

And the 6800 GT runs about twice as fast on WoW on average. I saw places where my card ran at 20-30 fps on max settings at 1024x768, and my friend's 6800 GT ran at 60-80 fps max settings at 1280x1024 (?).

 

[truesayian]

I'm about to get some SLI'ed 6800 Ultra's, With an AMD 64 4000.


WIll it look good on my new pc?



(I know, i just had to say that....)

 

[Moegames]

So I got a GeForce 6800GT for Xmas. I installed it, and realized that none of the decent PC games out there really take advantage of it over my old Radeon 9800 Pro.

I need a game that doesn't suck that demonstrates how kickass the 6800 line is. Don't say Half-Life 2, because it sucked, and don't say World of Warcraft, because I just ordered it.

I like that there's no point in upgrading your PC these days from a practical perspective, but it sucks when the upgrade doesn't come out of your pocket. Boo!

Sorry to bust ur bubble but there isnt much diffrent from a 9800 Pro to a GT6800 besides some Shader upgrade tech which honestly you'll be hard pressed to tell the diffrence at this point in time. Of course there is the speed diffrence..which really was the only diffrence from going from the 9800 era to the new video card era which are the X800/GT6800 cards

 

[AntoneM]

By the way, not like you care but the 6800 GT Video Processor that is a feature is borked. Just in case you start saying "WTF!" when Video Processor on the 6600GT out does yours or it doesn't do anything. (They are either completely broken, or partially borked.)

the 6600GT outperforms it in what way??

 

[AntoneM]

Sorry to bust ur bubble but there isnt much diffrent from a 9800 Pro to a GT6800 besides some Shader upgrade tech which honestly you'll be hard pressed to tell the diffrence at this point in time. Of course there is the speed diffrence..which really was the only diffrence from going from the 9800 era to the new video card era which are the X800/GT6800 cards

WTF! Speed is the only difference anyone cares about.

 

[Drinky Crow]

I didn't pay for it. I couldn't think of a gift when my in-laws asked, and I said "uh, get me a 6800GT or an X800 vanilla, whatever's cheaper at the time". They got me the GT.

 

[teh_pwn]

"WTF! Speed is the only difference anyone cares about."

I'd rather have a DirectX9 card than a somewhat faster card that can only do DirectX8.

 

[tahrikmili]

the 6600GT outperforms it in what way??

I think he's talking about the hardware mpeg2 decoding feature that's broken in the 6800GT/Ultra silicon and will never work, not today, not ever..

 

[Biff Hardbody]

I love my GT. Can set anything on max and get blazing frame rates. Gone are the days of chugging along. Enjoy your GT.

 

[Shompola]

"WTF! Speed is the only difference anyone cares about."

I'd rather have a DirectX9 card than a somewhat faster card that can only do DirectX8.

That is cool but remember that both cards are DX9.0 so that is obviously not one of the differences between them.

 

[tahrikmili]

WTF! Speed is the only difference anyone cares about.

Tell that to people who use all-in-wonder ati cards or dual-dvi nvidia cards.

 

[dark10x]

I think he's talking about the hardware mpeg2 decoding feature that's broken in the 6800GT/Ultra silicon and will never work, not today, not ever..

What's the deal with that anyways? I've heard mention of that, but I've never looked into the details...

 

[Vark]

Eh its just some hardware dvd thing that built into the cards that apparently doesn't work. I've didn't even know it was a 'feature' when i bought my card and if i'm stooping to watching dvd's on my pc then software decoders are just fine.

 

[tahrikmili]

What's the deal with that anyways? I've heard mention of that, but I've never looked into the details...

Decoding HD mpeg is very cpu intensive. On even a high end system it uses about 80%+ CPU time more often than not.. The NV40 GPU was supposed to have a built in decoder that would reduce the cpu utilization to about 20%. It turns out the NV40 chip used in 6800GT/Ultra have the decoder in the silicon broken and it will never be usable. the vanilla 6800, made using the NV43 (?) and the 6600 series of cards have this faulty design fixed so they can actually watch HD movies much.. well, not faster, but you can do something with your PC while watching them.

Eh its just some hardware dvd thing that built into the cards that apparently doesn't work. I've didn't even know it was a 'feature' when i bought my card and if i'm stooping to watching dvd's on my pc then software decoders are just fine.

It's not about DVDs actually.. It's more about HD videos.

 

[Vark]

oh is it for HD stuff? That's even less useful. It'll be nice in a year or so though.

 

[tahrikmili]

oh is it for HD stuff? That's even less useful. It'll be nice in a year or so though.

Exactly.. That's the whole point, if you're shelling out $500 on just a graphics card you want it to last.. and HD video will be big pretty soon. If I got this card and its HD capabilities never worked, I'd sue nvidia..

 

[Vark]

I dunno, I can't see myself watching too much HD content on my pc. The only way I could see it being a real issue is if I had my PC hooked up to a tv and was using it as a media center or something.

I'll stick with a standalone HD player and my HDTV

 

[Lara]

So I got a GeForce 6800GT for Xmas. I installed it, and realized that none of the decent PC games out there really take advantage of it over my old Radeon 9800 Pro.

I need a game that doesn't suck that demonstrates how kickass the 6800 line is.

To the best of my knowledge, no such game exists.

You're going to have to live with the knowledge that your benefactors wasted at least some of their money.

You should have asked for world peace.

 

[Tain]

So I got a GeForce 6800GT for Xmas. I installed it, and realized that none of the decent PC games out there really take advantage of it over my old Radeon 9800 Pro.

This is why I bought a Radeon 9800 Pro today instead of waiting for a high-end card. That, and it was $70 off.

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

The sentiment in here that the 6800 is pointless is damn ignorant.

Pure and simple: SHIT RUN FASTER!

Don't delude yourselves that anybody was geting smooth framerates in Doom 3 with anything under a 6800 class card, at least with their resolutions out of the basement. And Half-Life 2? ATI friendly or not, the game is not a smooth 60 on a 9800 Pro.

In truth, these games and others still have occasional to frequent frame drops on my big rig, but if I was still running my 9800 Pro, these games would all run worse. When did pure framerate need any other validation?

A new video card is not a new console. The 6800 GT does bring more than massive fillrate, but for me that's enough for now.