NVIDIA GeForce 6800 With PCI Express

NVIDIA is ready to bring the PCI Express versions of their new GeForce 6800 cards to the market. Alike the already announced PCX models - the PCI Express versions of the GeForce FX 5xxx series cards - NVIDIA is using their HSI Bridge solution to adapt their latest graphics processor for the new PCI Express bus . The chip is named NV45 internally and has the HIS bridge ship located on the same chip package, aside of the GPU die. This makes NVIDIAs bridged PCI Express solutions way cheaper. Many board makers did complain about the additional costs of the separate bridge chip on the PCX card series.

The new GeForce 6800 Ultra and GT cards with PCI Express are running at the same clock speeds than the AGP versions: 400/550 for the GeForce 6800 PCIe and 350/500 for the GT. We're able to offer exclusive photos of NVIDIAs reference cards:

The GeForce 6800 Ultra for PCI Express. Same cooling solution like the AGP version.

The same for the GeForce 6800 GT for PCI Express.

The HSI bridge chip is located on the GPU package, below the GPU die.

The new PCI Express x16 slot on a stripped GeForce 6800 GT for PCIe.

The new external power connector for the PCI Express cards.

An adapter to use common ATX power supplies with the new connector.

Both, GT and Ultra feature a new connector on top of the card. We're not sure what it is but it might be something we were speculating about in one of our last PCIe articles.