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Nvidia 6800 Ultra head-to-head

Leadtek vs AOpen

AOpen Aeolus 6800 Ultra

The last AOpen graphics card we tested was based on the GeForce 5900XT and impressed us at the time with its great mid-range performance. This card is very much a different kettle of fish, as here AOpen is showcasing Nvidia's top-of-the-line GeForce 6800 Ultra chipset. While the 5900XT card featured a distinctive custom fan design, this card is based on Nvidia's reference design. This isn't necessarily bad news. The reference design is generally something that Nvidia will have settled upon after plenty of R&D. For one thing the card is much lighter than the Leadtek, which is really weighed down by its large heatsink and fan. This makes the AOpen easier to handle and install. If you need to move your PC, it also makes it less likely to come out of its housing. Additionally, while it might be a reference design, it is effective, and I could feel the air being expelled at the rear of the card over the heatsink from a couple of feet away.

As this card keeps to the reference design it's no surprise that the clock speeds are completely stock too, with the GPU running at 400MHz and the 256MB of memory being 550MHz GDDR 3, giving an effective clock of 1100MHz. Being an unadulterated design and an early sample to boot we weren't expecting much in terms of overclocking but as you'll see we were pleasantly surprised.

A TV Out is located at the rear with cables for S-Video and for composite video supplied. As a further sweetener AOpen has bundled some games: Painkiller, SpellForce and Arx Fatalis. The first of these is a well-known title that's gained plenty of good reviews but the other two aren't likely to sway your purchasing decision.

As with all 6800 Ultra cards the AOpen features dual DVI outputs with adaptors for use with standard D-SUB connections. This means that you can hook up two DVI LCD monitors at the same time and get optimum quality from each. While most of us won't be able to enjoy such a luxury it's a great option to have. It also requires two power connectors running from different rails of a decent power supply. Nvidia has lowered its initial over-the-top 480W specification to a more reasonable 350W, but if you want to overclock you'll need to keep the PSU nice and beefy.

When you first power up the system with the card installed, the fan spins at full speed which makes quite a high pitched whine. Thankfully this settles down to a slower speed once Windows has booted and the noise is much reduced. The fan didn't speed up during benchmarking or game playing making it easy to live with.

So let's look at some results. Needless to say the AOpen was very fast indeed, but at default speeds it was a little slower than the Leadtek at almost every test, which you would expect, seeing as its core clock is running 25MHz slower. However, the fact is that while the AOpen is behind in all tests bar Halo, the graphs show that the gap is consistently very small.

Take 3DMark03 at the default resolution of 1,024 x 768 - the difference is only 357 points. Then there's X2: The Threat where the AOpen runs the Leadtek practically neck and neck across all test resolutions and image quality (IQ) settings. And with IQ switched on, the same was true in our custom Far Cry benchmark.

3DMark test

We're also now able to test with Doom 3 - a game that pushes graphics card like no title ever before. The built-in time demo doesn't stress AI and physics but it's a fantastic test for graphics cards and the quality of OpenGL drivers. All tests are run at High Quality, a setting that enables 8x AF by default.

Moving straight to the most demanding test, the AOpen was able to achieve 40 frames per second (fps) at 1600 x 1200 with 4x FSAA - only 1.2fps less than the Leadtek.

Doom 3 test

The great news is that the AOpen also proved very amenable to some overclocking. Despite its reference standard design we were able to take the GPU up to 425MHz and the memory to 1200MHz. Any higher and we saw artefacts while testing. Once overclocked the AOpen was actually able to overtake the Leadtek in some tests hitting 43.2fps at Doom3 with FSAA and AF at 1600 x 1200. However when overclocked the Leadtek pulled ahead again.

Considering the price difference and its overclockability the AOpen looks a more attractive option. The disadvantage is that there's no guarantee that you'll get a card that can overclock to the levels we reached, though by the same token you could get a board that will go even higher. However, even if you can't overclock the AOpen, it's so narrowly behind the Leadtek that of the two, it's the card we'd go for. And we'd spend the difference of a copy of Doom 3.

Verdict

All 6800 Ultra cards are very expensive and in terms of value for money a 6800 GT card is the sensible option. However, if you want the best and money is no object, then a 6800 Ultra is an attractive option. But at the same time, there's no need to throw money around. If you want top-end power without being overly extravagant, the AOpen would be our choice.

AOpen Aeolus 6800 Ultra
 
Rating 80%
Price £344
 
More info The AOpen site

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