Opinions on eVGA e-GeForce 6800 GS Graphics Card

[senorbandana]

I've seen good reviews on the eVGA e-GeForce 6800 GS Graphics Card at PriceGrabber and at PCWorld.com . For around $185 it seems like a good deal. Has anyone here had experience with this adapter?

The card would be going into an eMachines T6212. It has an AMD Athlon 3200+ processor and 1.5GB of PC3200 RAM.

The sims that would be run most often are MSFS 2004 and Silent Hunter.

Will appreciate any feedback pro or con.

Cal

[ctjoyce]

Well that card will work in your setup, just make sure you get the appropriate interface. But other than that, good choice in card, and company. I suggest www.newegg.com though. Theres a free 3 day shipping sale going on.

Cheers
Cameron

[senorbandana]

Thanks, Cameron.

The machine has the PCI-Express slot.

I'll check out newegg as suggested.

Cal

[congo]

It has an AMD Athlon 3200+ processor and 1.5GB of PC3200 RAM.

That chipset supports Dual Channel RAM, so it needs two or four similar modules with equal size on each channel. 1.5gb of ram must be running in single channel mode, thus reducing performance from a dual channel, 1gb setup. Quite possibly, one of the ram sticks is a slower spec, further reducing performance by reducing the speed of all ram on the system.

[senorbandana]

That chipset supports Dual Channel RAM, so it needs two or four similar modules with equal size on each channel.

Congo,

The PC came with a pair of 256MB modules. We added a pair of 512MB modules. I had thought only the pairs had to be matched, not all four banks. Do you suggest we remove the original RAM?

Cal

[4_Series_Scania]

Congo,

The PC came with a pair of 256MB modules. We added a pair of 512MB modules. I had thought only the pairs had to be matched, not all four banks. Do you suggest we remove the original RAM?

Cal

I think he probably does. However, the performance difference between dual cahnnel & non dual channel is small, you'll gain more from more non-dual channel RAM than you will by having less RAM, running in dual channel mode.

Ideally, change so all the RAM banks match, but, as you won't find 2 512MB sticks that'll exactly match 2 256MB sticks, then I'd say your stuck with what you've got.

You could always solve the problem by matching the 2 new 512Sticks with 2 more identical 512sticks, replacing the 2 256MB ones, that would be my move.  ;)

The 6800GS is a great card, as fast as the 6800GT but cheaper!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/ ... eries.html  

[senorbandana]

You could always solve the problem by matching the 2 new 512Sticks with 2 more identical 512sticks, replacing the 2 256MB ones, that would be my move.

The 6800GS is a great card, as fast as the 6800GT but cheaper!

Thanks, 4SS,

We're going to concentrate on the graphics card for now. I think that's where our performance bottleneck is at this point. We'll tinker with the RAM later if it looks like performance is still suffering. I appreciate the schooling you guys provide.

Cal

[congo]

I goofed, I thought you had 3 sticks.

256 : 512 channel 1       256 : 512 channel 2  

768mb each channel, may well be just fine and dandy, you'll have to verify it in your manual.

[4_Series_Scania]

I goofed, I thought you had 3 sticks.

256 : 512 channel 1       256 : 512 channel 2  

768mb each channel, may well be just fine and dandy, you'll have to verify it in your manual.

He'll have to check, alas, for example, on both my previous p4 and my current AMD setups neither would allow dual channel if different cappacity DIMMS were used, they had to be 2 x256 or 4 x256 256+512 on each channel would give 1536MB but in single channel mode only.
For this reason, I have to ditch my 4x 256MB sticks when I upgrade to 2GB RAM.  (I'd planned to buy a single 2GB stick and have a total of 2.5GB - Ho hum!  ::)

[senorbandana]

768mb each channel, may well be just fine and dandy, you'll have to verify it in your manual.

Thanks, Congo. That was my understanding about matching dual channel memory.

The eMachines User Guide doesn't even provide that minor detail. Kingston's website is more helpful than the manual.

Per 4SS's latest input, we'll check into the RAM issue further if we get disappointing performance from the new graphics adapter.

Cal

[senorbandana]

He'll have to check, alas, for example, on both my previous p4 and my current AMD setups neither would allow dual channel if different cappacity DIMMS were used, they had to be 2 x256 or 4 x256 256+512 on each channel would give 1536MB but in single channel mode only.

Thanks, 4SS.

Once we get that PC here and on the bench I'll see if I can figure out whether the currently installed RAM is running in single or dual channel mode. Would that be specified on the General tab in System Properties, or do I need to look somewhere else?

Cal

[4_Series_Scania]

Thanks, 4SS.

Once we get that PC here and on the bench I'll see if I can figure out whether the currently installed RAM is running in single or dual channel mode. Would that be specified on the General tab in System Properties, or do I need to look somewhere else?

Cal

Your motherboard's BIOS will (possibly) tell you, failing that, download CPU-Z
, run the program and click on the "Memory" tab, it'll tell you in the top right corner, like thus...


 

[senorbandana]

[quote]Your motherboard's BIOS will (possibly) tell you, failing that, download CPU-Z, run the program and click on the "Memory" tab, it'll tell you in the top right corner.