PCI-E Champions League: Leadtek PX6800Ultra VS GeCube RX850 XT
Final Words
There is a saying "When it comes to the family honor, talks about money are out of place". So, if we paraphrase it in regard to our today's material, we get "When top-end video cards are meant, money talks are irrelevant". Indeed, if somebody is willing to fork out an amount that equals the price of an "average" computer (without the monitor), we can easily assume the 50$ difference does not play a decisive part - that is not low-end or mainstream where even 30$ is quite a substantial difference.
Starting with the price, it would be logical to continue through raising the issue of performance just because that very minor percentage of users who are potential buyers of these cards regard is as of paramount importance.
But in this case nothing certain can be said regarding that because for now it is still impossible to give a one-one judgment as to which is better. Both these top-end cards demonstrate a performance which is more than enough for the games of the latest generation including the use of the most demanding quality settings.
We simply can't call the card which lost 5-7 FPS at some test a loser (e.g. if the result is 70).
But for those enthusiasts who are as rich as Rockefellers and don't mind the money but performance, we say that GeForce 6800Ultra PCI-E anyway offers one advantage that is missing in the competitor solution - the possibility of merging two 6800Ultra in the SLI.
Having mentioned that point important for getting an essential performance boost, let's move on to the totals for each of the cards tested today.
Leadtek PX6800 Ultra
The first advantage of Leadtek's solution is the cooling system which at absolutely all the parameters is beyond all praise - being a smart designer's solution, it superbly implements its major purpose (remember that the temperature of the overclocked card without using additional blowing did not exceed 65 C!). The overclocking capabilities have also proved quite worthy - 480MHz for the core, although for high-performance solutions like that overclocking is not vital at all, because even at the default frequencies both cards demonstrate excellent results.
Needless to say, the card's package bundle is very rich as it should be for a solution whose recommended (!) price is 550$.
We award Leadtek РХ6800 Ultra with our "3DNews Recommended" medal as a superb high-end solution offering support for advanced technologies and demonstrating excellent performance. You simply can't help recommending such a product. Of course, if you can make it available.
GeCube RX850 XT
At that, we again note the innovative approach to the design of the cooling system. Standing out with compact sizes as compared to the Leadtek's solution, it is not at all inferior at the efficiency due to its very smart design.
Of note are also the worthy overclocking results - the card was able to catch up with its elder sister - Platinum Edition - at frequencies, and even overtake it at the GPU speed - at the same time, it was able to achieve the 570MHz bar! At the same time, the temperature of the card did not exceed 69 C without using additional blowing (64 - at the default operating speed, which according to the modern standards is not bad at all for a card like that). The price of the card is approximately equal to that for the previous solution and starts with $550.
Of course, having awarded PX6800 Ultra with our reward, we found ourselves in a very difficult position because, as we noted above, there is almost a parity at performance, and at other parameters it is difficult to nominate a one-one winner. That is why we did an editorial polling on the matter "which would you like to take home :-)". In the totals, the vast majority were tempted by X850 XT. We also award GeCube RX850 XT with the "Editor's Choice" medal.
Therefore, having admired by these products to our hearts' contents and acquired a charge of positive emotions like fans while watching one of the decisive matches at the Cup Final or Champions' League, or "Formula 1" admirers after watching the latest grand-prix, we are coming back to the reality - back to our cars, friendly football matches on weekends in the school-yard, and to video cards of the "<$200" sector with the AGP-interface. These will be the matter of our further material.
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