Chaintech AE6800 APOGEE Turbo Version (NV42)

We are all anxiously looking forward to the announcement of new products on the market of video accelerators. Wafting for it with some sort of passion and vehemence. This pleasant atmosphere of anticipation strongly hyped up by the complete official silence over the novelties by NVIDIA Corporation and ATI Technologies is relieved by manufacturers who continue pleasing us with new products built on the chips of this generation which sometimes turn out to be very interesting and original solutions. In this material, we are talking right about one of such products.

Chaintech has been long known on the market as one of the major partners of the Californian company. In its product lines, Chaintech offers almost all the representatives of the GeForce 6 series, both for and PCI-Express. For instance, we have already reviewed Chaintech's solutions on the base of NV40 (AA6800 Turbo Edition is a nonstandard GeForce 6800 with increased speeds of the core and memory, as well as varied cards on the base of GeForce 6600GT(AGP and PCI-E), 6600, and 6200TC.

All in all, the impression we've got from Chaintech's produce is definitely positive. Hopefully, today's review will be just another proof of that because we are reviewing another very interesting graphic board - AE6800 APOGEE Turbo Version built on GeForce 6800 (NV42).

The innovations which make AE6800 stand out among other cards based on GeForce 6800 PCI-E are about installing much faster memory of 2.5 ns access time (most other boards are equipped with 2.8 ns access time video memory). Therefore, the nominal speeds have gone up either - instead of the standard 300/600MHz we already get the more attractive 358/660MHz (10%+). In fact, that does not prevent us from attempting to overclock AE6800 even more. We'll see what this nonstandard solution will be capable of. There is every reason to assume that 358/660MHz is far not the limit because Chaintech has also improved the card's cooling system through equipping it with the most known and effective coolers made by Arctic Cooling. Among the nice bonuses, there are separate radiators on the video memory. On the whole, there is something worth looking at, especially for overclockers.

Remember that the major distinction of PCI-E GeForce 6800 from the AGP analog is the number of pipelines - originally there are 12 pixel and 5 vertex pipelines in NV41 and NV42. Therefore, here we completely lose the major advantage of 6800 AGP built on NV40 - the possibility to unlock pipelines. Full-featured 16-pipeline chips for PCI-E solutions of the 6800 Series are already used in only GeForce 6800GT/Ultra (NV45).

The other main distinction from NV45 is in that NV41 offers native support for PCI-E, but not through the HSI bridge as it was implemented on NV45.

NV42 is in fact the same NV41 but migrated to the 0.11 process technology. All the other specifications including the inability to activate the pipelines remained the same.

A nice tradeoff for the restricted number of pipelines is the 256 MB of video memory ,which GeForce 6800 in its AGP make couldn't boast (except nonstandard solutions by ASUS and Gainward).

As regards the price, the recommended price for 6800 (NV41) was originally set to $299. For the moment, the retail price for batch-produced solutions does not differ much versus the announced $300 onwards depending on the manufacturer and the sales outlets.

The recommended price for the card in question is also $229, but it is quite probable that AE6800 APOGEE (NV42) will initially cost much higher. In view of its nonstandard character of the board and its advantages over similar products by other manufacturing companies, this is quite logical. Most important is to avoid the excess at that and keep the price within reasonable limits.

For comparison, we are taking first Radeon X800 in its turbo version - a nonstandard solution by Gigabyte. This card is in fact an analog to RX800 XL because the memory size, the bus speed and the frequencies are all the same. The only difference is in the number of pixel pipelines which are as many as 16 in RX800 XL, and 12 in Gigabyte RX800 Turbo Version. Therefore, the cost of the solution is higher than that for the standard RX800 which is currently available at $250 (+/-).

Secondly, the competitor solution is a full-featured RX800XL whose price is currently about $340 (+/-). Note separately that these cards should be compared with the assumption that the second one is more expensive. Nevertheless, it is also going to take part in the benchmarking.

Chaintech AE6800 APOGEE Turbo Version Features

Package bundle:

• Video card Chaintech AE6800 APOGEE;
• DVI-15-pin D-Sub adapter;
• S-Video/RCA adapter;
• RCA, S-Video, and HDTV cables;
• User's manual;
• CD with drivers and utilities, WinCinema;
• proprietary souvenir - a screwdriver
• Painkiller on 3 CD;

Game Pack v 1.0 comprising the following games:

1. Age of Wonders2
2. Serious Sam2
3. Rally Trophy
4. Max Payne
5. Tropico

First, note the card's cooling system made by Arctic Cooling which has gained popularity as a very effective solution for cooling video cards and features a low noise level.

Also the cooling system by Arctic Cooling was used on some solutions by HIS, Galaxy Glacier, and Sapphire (Toxic series).

The base is made of a copper plate with heat-spreading fins that covers the GPU, and a fan of turbine type. The structure is covered by a transparent plastic housing with a company logo on. On the foot of the radiator, there are protective washers which preserve the chip from damage upon direct contact with the radiator.

On the reverse side, there is a plate to which the cooling system is fastened with two screws. This plate is also a load-bearing element that prevents the board from bending considering the mass of the cooling system. Between the plate and the board, there is a protective rubber layer.

The video memory chips are cooled with separate aluminum radiators.

The board is equipped with 256Mb DDR video memory in the form of eight Hynix memory chips made in the BGA form factor of 2.5 ns access time, which is equivalent to 400MHz (800MHz DDR). The nominal operating frequency of the memory on ÀÅ6800 APOGEE is 660MHz DDR, which gives a good overclocking margin. Remember that this card uses faster memory than on standard GeForce 6800 equipped with 2.8 ns memory. Therefore, the nominal frequency at which the memory runs has also been increased by 10%. All the eight video memory chips are located on the board's front side.

Let's look at GPU NV42 (GeForce 6800) made on the 02 week of year 2005, revision B1. The nominal frequency of the GPU is 358MHz (also 10% overclocking as compared to the standard version), 12 pixel pipelines, 5 vertex units. Reminding it again - this formula is final, and nothing can be unlocked. The manufacturer used white thermo paste as the thermal interface for the GPU and thermo stickers for the video memory chips. Note the lack of a frame around the chip, which makes NV42 different from NV40 and NV41.

No additional power supply connector is provided on Chaintech AE6800 APOGEE.

The card is equipped with a standard set of outputs - analogous, digital, and TV-OUT

There is also a connector that allows uniting two ÀÅ6800 cards into the SLI.

Now on to the benchmarking part

Test configuration

To test ATI cards, we used the most recent WHQL Catalyst 5.4 drivers, and for the AE6800 APOGEE - beta drivers ForceWare 76.50.

Overclocking

Note that in terms of overclocking this card left quite pleasant impressions. From the default 358MHz on the chip (which is already overclocking relative to the GPU frequency standard for this card), we were able to attain 450MHz. Remember that overclocking of the graphic processor in GeForce 6800 (NV41) also amounted to 450MHz. That is, we arrive at a conclusion that the overclocking capability of NV41 and NV42 does not differ much. Actually, having tested a specimen of each of these cards, it would not be quite correct to make any global conclusions, but anyway first tests have been done and we'll deduce the statistics once a couple of specimen cards on the base of NV42 have been to out test lab.

What pleased us most is the overclocking of video memory. The 2.5 ns memory faster than that on the regular GeForce 6800 PCI-E (2.8 ns by default) allowed us to overclock from 660MHz DDR to 850(!)MHz DDR. That is, the memory overclocked by 50 MHz higher than its rated value (800MHz DDR).

Remember that tests were run on an open test bench without using additional blowing of cards or other modifications of the cooling systems (which would be some sort of blasphemy because the manufacturer installed not a poor propeller but an impressive Arctic Cooling). Only the thermo interface has been replaced (with "Alsyl-3"), and the ambient temperature in the test lab was 25 degrees.

Performance and conclusions

We have just acquainted with a novelty for the middle-market of PCI-E video cards - GeForce 6800 (NV42) on the example of the remarkable board by Chaintech.

It's always a pleasure to us to review and test not only just another representative of the army of reference board clones which mainly differ in the stickers on the cooling system, but also products outstanding from all points of view. Departure from the standard is always curious, and if the result is successful, then it's very pleasant.

In this case, both these components are practically there in the ideal relation. The board proved to be dignified primarily in the overclocker's viewpoint, because even having the frequencies originally overstated by 10% relative to the standard 358/660 MHz you get the maximum overclock to 450/850 MHz. Especially nice was overclocking of the 2.5 ns memory which was successfully overclocked by 50 MHz higher than its nominal frequency (850 MHz DDR).

Secondly, from the aesthetic viewpoint the solution proved to be more than successful. Most importantly, the famous Arctic Cooling system installed on board stands out with not only the attractive exterior but high efficiency - low noise level, which for most users is a factor of importance.

The buyer will also be pleased by the rich package bundle that along with the standard kit of "tying items" also has many popular games like Painkiller on 3 CDs and other nice bonuses, including the proprietary screwdriver.

Of course, it's not the screwdriver that matters, but the performance. So, what has ÀÅ6800 APOGEE demonstrated versus its direct competitors?

Here, most important is the future retail price of the solution as usual. The more it differs (towards the reduction, of course) from RX800XL, the better. As regards the nonstandard solution Gigabyte RX800 Turbo Edition, its price is still a bit higher than for the regular RX800XL because if ÀÅ6800 sells at an adequate price it will be a bargain from all points.

Summary

Chaintech has produced another solution that differs from the standard which in the end proved to be very successful. Of course, the final verdict will be returned by the price, and unless it is much higher than the recommended $299, the solution will be a definite market success. Summing up all the above, I'd like to note that the board demonstrated a very good showing and we can safely recommend Chaintech AE6800 APOGEE Turbo Edition for purchase.

We appreciate Chaintech for the video card Chaintech AE6800 APOGEE Turbo Version presented for tests.

We are thankful to ASUS and Kingston Technology for the hardware to build the test bench.