We feel that the 7x.xx series drivers are a step in the right direction for Nvidia, performance was increased over any 6x.xx driver set that we tried. We also felt that Nvidia will need to get the driver issues straightened out (it seemed each set had one unique issue to it, see the ‘Testbed Specs & Testing?section of this article.) and put a set of WHQL drivers out, the last WHQL drivers from Nvidia are from November. We were also disappointed to see the Refresh Override Tab removed from the newer driver sets due to performance issues that were experienced while using it. The user now needs to use Reforce or another 3rd party application to override the 60Hz Windows XP limitation for various resolutions. The 6800 series of Video Cards is just the beginning of what we are going to see from Nvidia over the next few years, keep in mind that the 6800 Ultra runs at a much slower core clock speed than the X800XT PE but still manages to keep pace with it. Think of the 6800 core as ATI’s 9700 core ?and we all know how far ATI managed to take this technology. Nvidia has delivered a superb product here and while it may slightly fall behind the ATI X800XT PE in some of the performance testing results it is by no means slow. Nvidia still has some work to do with Anti-Aliasing ?enabling AA still seems to drop performance much more than it does when enabling it on the ATI products, however AF on the Nvidia cards is much sharper. In order for Anti-Aliasing to work in Half Life 2 and Far Cry ?the built in game AA needed to be disabled and it had to be enabled in the Video Card Drivers. Using the in game settings for AA never actually enabled AA. The eVGA 6800 Ultra can be found online for around $450, availability and pricing alone may make it more attractive than the ATI card.
The ATI Catalyst Drivers are how I would expect Drivers to work for a $500 Video Card. The Catalyst 5.1s show ATI has really matured in the Driver writing process, performance was great across the board, old games and new we didn’t run into a single issue. I’ve heard the new Pain Killer addon has some issues with missing models however it was not an issue that affected our review. The X800XT PE may be lagging behind Nvidia’s brand new technology but I think ATIs use of brute force or speed may be coming to an end. Availability and pricing on the X800XT PE may be the biggest hindrance, checking Pricewatch there are only a limited amount of vendors stocking this card and the price is usually $50+ over MSRP.
There is no wrong choice between these two Video Cards. Performance is within a few frames in most cases ?and the eVGA 6800 Ultra is able to do this at a lower clock speed. Availability may still hinder shoppers from being able to purchase the X800XT PE and when stock is found there it’s usually at an elevated price. If Nvidia can work out the bugs and get a quality set of WHQL drivers released they’d look real good. Nvidia really needs to look at ATI and the Catalyst drivers ?customers want updated WHQL drivers, they want to be able to submit feedback when there is a problem and they want fast resolution to their issues. When having to dig through multiple sets of leaked betas to find a set that work for all applications ?this can be very frustrating ?in fact for this review we had to use 3 different driver sets to be able to run our suite of benchmarks. We quickly got over the fact we had to use two slots and had to use two Power Supply Connections ?the OCZ 520 has two dedicated single chain connections with EMI reduction that worked perfectly here!
I would like to thank both ATI and eVGA for supplying the samples used in this review.
Pros: ATI X800XT PE
Fastest card on the market.
Single slot, quiet cooler.
Catalyst 5.1 drivers have matured.
Single Molex connection.
Cons: ATI X800XT PE
Card generates a lot of heat.
Availability, price.
"Editor's Choice - The fastest card on the market single slot, single power connection ?hindered by price and availability."
Pros: eVGA 6800 Ultra
Fast, within a few % of the X800XT PE.
More availability that XT PE, selling for about $450.
Newer technology than X800XT PE.
Made for Doom III.
Cons: eVGA 6800 Ultra
Requires 2x Molex Power Connectors and AGP with adjoining PCI slot.
Drivers still need some work, Nvidia needs to get WHQL drivers out more often.
"Editor's Choice - For technological advancements, performance at lower clock speed, price when compared to X800XT PE."
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Sapphire Radeon X800 Review (2005-02-03)