$325 GeForce 6800 Ultra Card

So a few months ago I decide to buy a new video card for Half-Life 2. I go to pricewatch and see an ad on Newegg.com for an eVGA 256MB GeForce 6800 "Limited Edition" for $325. It was supposedly a 12 pipeline 6800 clocked at 325/1100 with GDDR3 memory. I figure, what the hell, and bought it to accompany my somewhat budget Athlon XP 2500+ computer. Now, figuring out exactly what this card was took some time.

Now, out of the box, it was okay. There was some strange artifacting on the second test in 3DMark05 that was there without overclocking. Strange, but that was the only time artifacting ever occured, so I didn't really care.

Now, in terms of overclocking, it was pretty bad. Couldn't move up the memory at all, and the core could get to 350 before artifacting occured. Didn't care much though.

But... I started reading more on this card and apparantly it is nothing but a 6800 Ultra with a lower clock and different BIOS. So, I read some more and did a BIOS flash to a modified GeForce 6800 Ultra BIOS.

WOW! This card is in fact a 6800 Ultra. With this new BIOS, I am running at 425/1166! My 3DMark05 score went from 3489 to 5008. Insane! I haven't tested any higher core speeds, but have read of people getting them to 445. I don't need it any faster though.

Unfortunately, I don't see too big of a difference in Half-Life 2, as my slow processor is holding back the performance. I'm debating on whether or not I should get a 3200+ and 400 MHz memory, but I don't think I need it.

It appears as though this eVGA card is no longer available on the market, but you may be able to find it. I couldn't be happier with this card!

--
"There's more to life than profits."
<font color=red>"Like what?"</font color=red>
"Like, you know, Slurpees and stuff."
<A HREF="http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/video/707/slurpees.mov" target="_new">South Park</A>