MaximumPC 2005 11

6 MA XIMUMPC NOVEMBER 2005

$300 BROUHAHA

If you’ve been waiting to upgrade from an

eight-pipe videocard, nVidia’s recent intro-

duction of 20- and 24-pipe monster boards

has driven the prices of last-gen 12- and 16-

pipe boards way down.

MSI NX6800 RIDDICK

Prices for boards based on nVidia’s 12-pipe

GeForce 6800 were falling rapidly as we

went to press, with street prices for MSI’s

NX6800 Riddick as low as $285 (before a

$30 mail-in rebate). After comparing this

card’s performance with the much faster

Radeon X800 XL board from Connect3D, we

expect to see that trend continue.

Based on specifi cations alone, it comes

as no surprise that Connect3D’s 16-pipe

board delivers higher benchmark numbers

than the NX6800. In addition to having four

fewer pixel pipelines, the nVidia GeForce

6800 at the heart of this product can only be

paired with old-school DDR1 RAM. We were

surprised to discover, however, that the MSI

board just barely exceeded the performance

of Leadtek’s less-expensive GeForce 6600

GT. Superior MPEG-2 decoding and SLI

capabilities can’t compensate for this card’s

poor gaming performance.

CONNECT3D 3028 RADEON X800XL

We reviewed ATI’s own implementation of

the Radeon X800 XL back in July, and we

like Connect3D’s board just as much. As we

suggested back then, a 16-pipe card with a

256-bit interface to 256MB of GDDR3 mem-

ory is the sweet spot for people interested

in performance at a decent price.

The delta in games performance

between this and MSI’s GeForce 6800 card

just can’t be overemphasized: When we

ran Doom 3 at “high quality” at 1600x

resolution and 4x antialiasing, the Radeon

X800 XL delivered 31fps, compared with

the GeForce 6800’s 24.6. When ATI ships its

CrossFire solution, the X800 XL will be the

minimum card you’d want to partner with

the 16-pipe CrossFire card. As we discov-

ered with all the ATI GPUs, however, this

board’s MPEG-2 video performance pales

in comparison to that of the GeForce card.

$200 BATTLE ROYALE

Buying an ultra-budget videocard once meant

making tremendous compromises in quality;

fortunately, that’s no longer the case. These

days, you’ll fi nd compelling values in both ATI

and nVidia-powered videocards.

LEADTEK WINFAST PX6600GT TDH

Leadtek’s WinFast PX6600GT TDH is a

by-the-book implementation of nVidia’s

GeForce 6600 GT. The board’s GPU and

128MB of GDDR3 memory are clocked at

500MHz, per nVidia’s reference design.

As such, it can’t compete with Sapphire’s

256MB Radeon X800GT—at least not in

terms of games performance.

The PX6600GT lagged behind the

Sapphire in most of our gaming benchmarks,

including Doom 3, typically a strong point for

nVidia-powered cards. On the other hand, you

can install a pair of these cards in an nForce

motherboard, a feature that the ATI-powered

board won’t be able to match until CrossFire

reaches the market. And when it comes to

MPEG-2 decoding, Leadtek’s board beats the

living snot out Sapphire’s—a major consider-

ation if you’re looking to output video to TV.

SAPPHIRE RADEON X800 GT

The eight pixel-pipeline GPU in Sapphire’s

Radeon X800 GT is clocked slightly slower

than the GeForce 6600 GT in Leadtek’s card

(486- vs. 500MHz), but its memory confi gura-

tion more than compensates for the differ-

ence: Sapphire’s card is not only equipped

with twice as much GDDR3 memory as

Leadtek’s, but the GPU’s 256-bit memory

interface is twice as wide. This helps explain

Sapphire’s superior benchmark performance

in nearly every category.

ATI will eventually ship its CrossFire dual-

GPU solution, but from what we understand

of ATI’s technology, it wouldn’t make sense

to use the X800 GT card in a CrossFire con-

fi guration. Here’s why: The CrossFire Edition

boards will achieve parity with whatever card

they’re paired with, so if you couple a 128MB

X800 CrossFire Edition card with the X

GT, half the X800 GT’s frame buffer will be

wasted. Pair the card with a 256MB X800 XL

CrossFire Edition, and half the CrossFire’s

pixel pipelines will shut down.

SAPPHIRE X800 GT

7

CONNECT3D X800XL

7

$285, http://www.msi.com.tw

5

MSI NX6800 RIDDICK

LEADTEK PX6600GT TDH

6

$165, http://www.leadtek.com

$170, http://www.sapphiretech.com

$285, http://www.connect3d.com

VIDEOCARD SHOWDOWN