Chaintech AA6800 Turbo Edition (GeForce 6800)
Introduction
| Chaintech AA6800 Turbo Edition |
| GPU chip |
NV40 (0.13) |
| Memory |
128Mb DDR; 256Bit;
Hynix 2.2 ns |
| Frequencies: |
358MHz / 770MHz DDR |
| Bus: |
AGP 8X |
| Category: |
High - end |
| Price: |
$305 |
The video card market has always been transforming and progressing at an immense speed, and for the latest months the trend has acquired a truly grandiose scale. See for yourselves. The release of new chips by both companies is not merely a release of another series of chips surpassing their predecessors by 5-15%, but a true revolution in the world of graphic accelerators. That regards the AGP market alone. But we see that PCI-Express is close on the heels with its not yet fully revealed potentials. All in all, there is a lot to make the consumers' eyes dazzle. We, reviewers, are left to maneuver in this ocean, trying to figure out all the fine points to make the reader aware of all the ins and outs before finally going to the shop. Target locked.
So we are meticulously sorting things out, making conclusions, building graphs. This is incredibly exciting of course, but while dealing with lots of various video cards you are happy about any trifle that makes a video card different from the reference, from three-four similar cards tested the week before :).
Of course, two identically looking video cards in practice may turn out to be absolutely different at performance/overclocking potentials/ etc. But when the manufacturer originally throws in something that is different from other analogs by something more than a label on the cooling system or a few more CDs in the package bundle, this is already much more interesting by definition. That relates to both aesthetical and technical constituents.
While it's all clear regarding the former - it offers a design of the cooling system different from the reference (which, I think, should be referred to the technical constituent as well and is self-explanatory), or the package bundle that is able satisfying the needs of the most exigent user, the latter is more curious since it offers a direct effect on the performance of the solution itself. The faster memory, the PCB design that is different from the reference, originally increased frequencies.. Let's dwell at that in more detail.
Recall the most known of similar specimens of mass-produced video cards. Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 PRO and 9600XT Fireblade, Gigabyte GeForce FX5950Ultra GT, GexCube 9600XT Extreme and 9550XT Õtreme.. this is only the first what comes up into your head.
So Chaintech, known on the market of video cards for its products based on NVIDIA chips for many years, has released a non-standard device – the 6800 non Ultra video card with the CPU/memory frequencies increased to 358 MHz/ 770 MHz (versus 325/700 MHz declared from this card). This board is produced in the Apogee series known for its superb package bundle and original design. As a bright example, let's recall AA5700Ultra Apogee. And of course the 6800 non Ultra in question today is no exception.
 Chaintech AA6800 Turbo EditionWe'll be comparing this board versus Leadtek WinFast A400 and Leadtek WinFast A400 GT video cards already known to you from the previous review. In theory, ÀÀ6800 at performance should be in the middle of these two solutions, and we'll find it out if the assumption proves right in the course of the tests.
We have also included ATI Radeon X800 PRO as an alternative to these cards.
Now let's bring back the specifications of these boards which will be somehow reviewed in this material. For convenience, we summed up all the differences into the following table:
| Video cards |
NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT |
ATI Radeon X800 PRO |
Chaintech AA6800 Turbo Edition |
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 |
| Code name |
NV40 |
R420 |
NV40 |
NV40 |
| Process technology |
0.13 mk |
| Memory bus |
256 bit
(GDDR3) |
256 bit
(GDDR3) |
256 bit
(DDR I) |
256 bit
(DDR I) |
| Bus |
AGP 4x / 8x |
| Memory |
256Mb |
256Mb |
128Mb |
128Mb |
| Chip clock speed |
350 MHz |
475 MHz |
358 MHz |
325 MHz |
| Memory speed |
500 MHz
(1000 GDDR3) |
450 MHz
(900 GDDR3) |
385 MHz
(770 DDR) |
350 MHz
(700 DDR) |
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