Asus 6800 LE

Since nearly 4 weeks, I’m the owner of an Asus V9999LE/TD “Graphics Adapter”.
Now, it’s time for a review. Why, do you ask. You’ll see (or better), you’ll read.

The GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) at this card is the NV 40, a nVidia chip of the new Geforce-Generation, the Geforce 6800. The NV 40 has 16 Pixel Pipelines and 6 Shader Units.
Unfortunately, the producing of gpu’s is not perfect, so nVidia has to disable some Units and Pipelines because they don’t work perfectly.
So, we have 3 possible Chips for sale: 6800 LE (8 Pipes, 4 PU), 6800 Standard (12 P, 5 SU) and 6800 GT/Ultra (16 Pipes, 6 SU).
All 6800 chips have a 256 Bit memory bus. That’s the main different to NV 43 (6600 GT), this chip only provides 128 Bit memory bus. The 6600 GT also has 8 Pipelines and 4 SU, but it has a higher gpu and memory speed. (500/500 DDR, 6800 LE 300/350 DDR)
The whole new generation supports Pixel Shader 3.0, so more then ATI with their X800-series (2.0B). Also the 6800-series supports some special features like “High Dynamic Range Rendering”(details at Look and Feel).
Why a 6800 LE, not the 6600 GT?
Basicly, the 6600 GT is faster then the 6800 LE, because of high gpu speed. BUT, you can enable the 8 disabled Pipelines on the 6800 LE, and this causes more fps, more then the 6600 GT. Of course, it’s possible that the (new) enabled Pipelines are really damaged, and you have corrupted 3D-images. But, what’s life without risk?

Performance: (high Detail, 1024x768) – all Test ForceWare 66.72

My PC: MSI K7N2 Delta ILSR (nForce 2 Ultra 400)
AMD XP 2600+ (Barton, 333 FSB)
512 Mbyte Ram (2x 256 MB, DDR 400 – runs with 333 Mhz and CL 2)
Samsung SP1614N (7200 rpm, 8 MB Cache)
GameStar: Intel D875PBZLK
Intel Pentium 4 HT 540 (3200 Mhz)
1024 MB Ram

8 Pipes/4 SU: With this configuration, I’ve 54 fps at Doom 3 demo1, the real game runs with 60 fps, more aren’t possible with Doom 3 frame-limiter. Far Cry runs with 31 frames at outside levels (steam).
Half Life 2 runs great with 2x FSAA (Anti-Aliasing), ca. 40-50 fps.
3Dmark 2005 : ~ 2100 Points

I can give you also some Benchmark results of GameStar (German PC-Mag):
Doom 3: 1024 – 68.4 fps, 1280 – 50.4 fps
4 FSAA + 8 AF 1024 – 42.9 fps, 1280 – 30.3 fps
Far Cry 1024 – 34.9 fps, 1280 – 24.1 fps

12 Pipes/5 SU:
Doom 3 demo1: 59 fps
Far Cry : 33 fps
Half Life 2 : 45-57 fps
3Dmark 2005: ~ 3100 Points (GT1: 12.6 fps, GT2: 9.0 fps, GT3: 16.9 fps)

16 Pipes/6 SU :
Doom 3 demo1: 66 fps
Far Cry : 37 fps
Half Life 2: 48-60 fps
3Dmark 2005: ~3700 Points
PC Games Hardware results: (nForce 2, XP 3000, ForceWare 66.81)
1280x960, 4x FSAA, 8x AF

8 Pipelines 16 Pipelines
Doom 3: 32 fps 39 fps
Far Cry 1.1: 23 fps 32 fps

You see, the standard performance is very good, and if you have luck, you can get 30 – 50 % more speed in games. You can get 6800GT speed, for only 230 Euro (6800 GT: 400 Euro)
The performance is very good, you can play every actual game with high detail and FSAA, with more then 40 Frames, is here anywhere around an other gpu, which can provide this performance?

Look and Feel:

The most games are using Pixel Shaders 2.0, because most player “only” have DirectX 9.0A Hardware (FX series, Ati 9x00-series, Ati X800-850 series), so you won’t get more details or special effects. But, don’t forget, that you can enable 4x Anti Aliasing and anisotropic Filtering – that brings better graphic, better textures.
Now, some examples, where you really get more quality in games.

Chronicles of Ridick has a so called Pixel Shader 2.0++ Mode. If you enable this mode, you will see smooth shadows, no hard edges at shadows. This looks really cool, but the performance isn’t good with this Mode, I lost 32 fps (52 fps to 20 fps).

Far Cry with version 1.3 uses HDR, high dynamic range rendering. This is a great feature, every light is much more bright, more jungle atmosphere and sometimes you get dazzled.
(dazzled – geblendet ? – I don’t know the right English word, so please help me)
Some images, you can find here: …. .

UPDATE: Splinter Cell 3 supports SM 3! You can play with SM 1.1 mode or enable 3.0 mode. 2.0 is not supported! The "bonus" features of 3.0 are HDR and

Pictures: Pic1
Pic2
Pic3
Pic4

The Asus V9999LE bundle – equipment:

The card has a diagnosis-chip on board, with ASUS SmartDoctor you get the actual temperature of the chip and the ram. Also SmartDoctor shows you the speed of the fan from the gpu. You can overclock the card with this tool and adjust the speed of the fan.
(but it’s not necessary – you can’t hear the fan, it’s not noisy)
The V9999LE has a VGA and a DVI output + a TV outout.
Adaptors: TV-Out adaptor, DVI to 2nd VGA output adaptor
Software: Deus Ex 2 (Invisible War), Battle Engine Aquila, Gun Metal, Asus DVD XP, Media Show, Drivers and Utilities

Nothing special, nothing more to mention…

Result:

I recommit this card because it’s fast and supports PS 3.0. (maybe they will be used in future…) The equipment isn’t very good but it’s enough for an graphic card. Also important that the fan isn’t noisy and you can adjust it if you want.

Temperature after 30 minutes playing: 56° C GPU, 48° C Ram Fan-speed: 3067 rpm
It’s an AGP-card.

nice review mart :thumbup: really enjoyed reading it

daaamn u woke me up, great reveiw!
and those screenshots are BEAUTIFUL!