Chaintech AA6800 Turbo Edition (GeForce 6800)

Introduction

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 Edition

We'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)

Chaintech AA6800 Turbo Edition (GeForce 6800) Features

First of all the box merits a special mention. Frankly, its sight alone tells that there is something deserving a special attention. Well, it's not quite reasonable judging about a product by its package, so we are opening this huge gleaming briefcase and looking inside where we find the following contents:

1. Chaintech AA6800 Turbo Edition Video Card.
2. 15-pin D-Sub/DVI adapter;
3. S-Video/RCA adapter;
4. Cables: RCA; S-Video;
5. Splitter for additional power supply;
6. Detailed nice-looking manual;
7. Stylish transparent CD-Case containing the following CDs:

a) drivers ÑD; DirectX 9.0b; Adobe Photoshop Album1.0; GOSU(Graphics Overclocking System Utility) - a utility for overclocking and software monitoring of the temperature;
b) WinCinema; WinDVD4; WinDVD Creator; WinRip;
c) GamePack V1.0 (Age of Wonders2; Serious Sam2; Rally Trophy; Max Payne; Tropico);
d) Commandos 3 Full Version (3 CDs);

Design and layout

The board is made on blue textolyte, a prevailing option for Chaintech products, with the PCB design being an absolute replica of NVIDIA reference design.

*1800x1077; 311Kb	*1800x1049; 412Kb
*1800x1089; 410Kb	*1800x1056; 474Kb

Chaintech made its own contribution to the cooling system of the video card in question. From the technical viewpoint, nothing radical has been found. The cooling system, roughly speaking, is a "light version" of what is installed on 6800 Ultra reference board, that is, it is a single-slot board.

There is a separate copper radiator on the GPU, a heat pipe with a radiator on the video memory, and a lid with a fan mounted into it - that's just the structure that covers both the chip and all the memory circuits on the front side of the board.

Chaintech has changed the design of the lid covering all the structure thus accentuating that the card belongs to its product line. Of the changes made by Chaintech, it's worth noting the transparent fan blades and the soft illumination during operation. That is to say, "a slight cosmetic repair". Stylish, nice, and smart.

There is 128 Mb DDR memory with a 256 bit data transmission bus assembled with eight Hynix HY5DU283222AF-22 chips made in the BGA form factor, of 2.2 ns access time, which is equivalent to the operating frequency 450 MHz (900 MHz DDR). At the same time, the nominal operating frequency of the card is 770 MHz instead of 700 MHz according to specifications declared for video cards made on 6800 non Ultra chips. This product is of potential interest to overclockers.

All the eight video memory chips are located on the boards's front side.

As we have already stated, the GPU is pre-overclocked as well. Its rated frequency is 358 MHz. Remember that standard 6800 non Ultra cards offer 325 MHz of nominal GPU speed. Judging by the marking, the chip is made on the 26th week of year 2004 and has revision A1.

The card is also equipped with a connector for additional power supply.

The board offers a set of outputs: analogous, digital, and S-Video. Note their cover stylized for gold-plating. Just another fine spice which we can't help mentioning.

Test configuration:

CPU	P4 3.2Mhz 800FSB (Northwood D1)
Mb	Epox 4PDA2+ (i865PE)
Memory	PC2700 2x256Mb 400Mhz in the dual-channel mode Latency timings - 2.5-8-4-4
VGA	Chaintech Apogee AA6800 Turbo Edition (GeForce 6800) ATI Radeon X800 Pro Leadtek A400 TDH (GeForce 6800) Leadtek A400GT TDH (GeForce 6800GT)
OS	WinXP + SP1
Drivers	ForceWare 61.76 Catalyst 4.7

Test software:

Synthetic benchmarks:

1. 3DMark2003 Patch 340;
2. 3DMark2001SE Patch 330;
3. Codecreatures v1.0.0 (a DirectX 8.1 application, shaders on, Hardware T&L);

   Gaming benchmarks:
   

4. Unreal Tournament 2003 (Direct3D, Hardware T&L, vertex shaders, Dot3, cube texturing.);
5. Unreal Tournament 2004 (Direct3D, Hardware T&L, vertex shaders, Dot3, cube texturing.);
6. AquaMark 3 (DirectX 9.0, Vertex Shaders 1.1/1.4/2.0, Pixel Shaders 1.1/1.4/2.0, Hardware T&L, AquaMark3 Triscore mode);
7. HALO: Combat Evolved 1.2 (DirectX 9.0, Vertex Shaders 1.1/1.4/2.0, Pixel Shaders 1.1/1.4/2.0, Hardware T&L, quality set to the maximum possible);
8. Gun Metal Benchmark 2 v1.20s (a DirectX 9.0 benchmark, Vertex Shaders 2.0, Pixel Shaders 1.1, Hardware T&L);
9. Final Fantasy XI Official Benchmark 2 (a benchmark for assessing the performance in Final Fantasy XI. The developers haven't presented any data on the gaming engine);
10. X2: The Threat Demo (Direct3D, multitexturing, Dot3, running in the benchmark mode embedded in the demo version);
11. Half-life 2 leaked beta (DirectX 9.0, Vertex Shaders 2.0, Pixel Shaders 2.0);
12. FarCry ver1.1 (DirectX 9.0, Pixel Shaders 2.0, our own demo "3Dnews001" was used).
13. DOOM 3(timedemo demo1.demo).

Benchmarking Results

Already in the first test, we notice that ÀÀ6800 is running almost "nose to nose" with Õ800 PRO, which considering its price makes the card a very attractive product.

Then we are examining it more closely:

But at 3DMark 2001SE, the ÀÀ6800 is already distancing from Õ800PRO. In fact, the latter leaves all the NVIDIA cards behind somehow to a varied extent. There is the opinion that NVIDIA cards prove to be more powerful at 3DMark 2003, whereas ATI cards show higher performance at 3DMark 2001.

But that is more likely from the humor, because far not all video cards can be chosen for each benchmark :)

However, it's worth noting that the statement is well-grounded, especially if we examine closely all the previous results of tests at above benchmarks.

Now, moving on..

The hard demanding DX8.1 benchmark. At that, the cards again rank in an absolute logical "ladder".

The approximate "verdict" relative to AA6800 has thus been returned. But we are more interested in what the tests in gaming applications will tell. Now we are going to find that out in more detail.

Tests with Games

Nothing of a surprise has been found out in this test. As you remember from our previous comparative tests and as you can judge now, the X800PRO has surpassed even 6800GT, let alone AA6800.

If we forget about the rival's presence for a moment, we see that that NVIDIA cards go keeping almost the same distance from one another.

It's good when the card in question appears to be a really good product. This is confirmed by X2, a benchmark that gives quite enough load to the video card. While in the regular mode the AA6600 and X800PRO go abreast, the AA and shadows enabled widen the gap between them in favor of the overclocked version 6800. And only at 1600x1200 they arrive at some sort of a "common denominator".

Looking at the results for UT2K3, it appears to be more interesting to include into the graph the results for GeForce6800 non Ultra with 256Mb of memory. That's what we'll do soon. But for now we see an awful lag of both 6800 in high resolutions (remember that both cards offer 128 MB of video memory).

No test nowadays is run without Far Cry. At that, we see the same picture like in UT2K3, namely, the lag of both 6800 in high resolutions. Regarding the 6800GT and Õ800PRO, no variant reading should be there. All is clearly seen on the graphs.

Personally, we are more interested in commenting merely the last graph, because without AA and AF and even Low-settings we can observe a very amusing parity among all the cards, with some sort of "branching" at 1600x1200 - the game is weak for modern video cards :).

With the aggressive quality settings enabled, a real difference at performance is getting increasingly vivid. The conclusion is similar to those when testing in UT2K3 and Far Cry.

And for dessert - a smashing hit of the season. DOOM3!

Final Words

For the time being, the product by Chaintech appears to be a catch, which anyway has its own pros and cons, like any solutions in question.

You can list the pros for quite a long time. The first and the most important is the superb performance, because in many tests the AA6800PRO left X800PRO behind, and at most others it approached to it at the maximum possible number of FPS. With the recommended price 305$, the solution that is almost on par with X800PRO appears to be more attractive. By the way, it is attractive not only at performance and price but is also nice to look, so the buyers who find the aesthetic factor of importance will be quite pleased by AA6800.

Now let's talk about the cons. There is one shortcoming (which in fact can't be regarded a flaw) which I dare to state. During the tests of the video card, we also tried overclocking it. The results proved not so impressive. That is, 395 MHz/800 MHz without any modification to the cooling. Note that I am talking about the absolutely stable frequencies now. While the chip has nothing to complain, and 395 MHz is a very good result for it, but we expected much more from the 2.2 ns memory. We do hope we got a somehow faulty specimen, because in all the other respects AA6800 proves almost ideal.

On the whole, we are pleased to state that a high-quality, successful and powerful product has emerged on the market, and to congratulate Chaintech on another superb solution based on NVIDIA chips. It's nice that manufacturers don't forget about the AGP market and rejoice the consumers who are not planning to migrate to the PCI-Express in the near future, as well as interesting and attractive options for upgrading their systems.

Considering today's popularity of 6800 non Ultra, this is very good. And we, considering the above factors, we'll soon present one more interesting card based on the 6800 non Ultra to your judgment.