Will the 512MB 6800 Ultra shine in the future?

A couple of 512MB versions of the 6800 Ultra are now available at Newegg:

- XFX PVT45FYDF2 http://tinyurl.com/dnje3 $799.99
- BFG Tech BFGR68512UOCX http://tinyurl.com/9gwon $884.00

I've only checked one review of BFG's OC version and things don't look
promising.

The results for the 512MB card are virtually identical to those of the
256MB version, both singularly and in SLI mode. In lower spec
environments the 256MB version tends to marginally come out on top,
obviously due to the slightly slower memory. However, in higher spec
environments the 512MB card can't pull away, and is often actually
beaten by the 256MB version.

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/bfg_...ltra_oc_512mb/

Two major factors are on the negative side for the immediate future of
this 512MB card. Firstly, the benchmarks included the usual suspects,
Doom3, Far Cry and Half-Life 2, and these games are predicted to be
consistent engines for the next couple of years. Secondly, the system
setup of an Athlon 64 X2 4800+, Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, 2x 512MB Corsair
CMX512-3200XLPRO and 34GB Western Digital Raptor is about as fast as we
will see until into 2006. With both of these factors combined, I really
can't see anywhere that this 512MB card is going to grab any bragging
rights from.

Now look at this from a financial point of view. You can get two 256MB
6800 Ultras for the price of one 512MB card, and the SLI option will
thrash the 512MB card. Instead of paying $800 to $900 for a 512MB 6800
Ultra, or $850 to $1,050 for two 256MB 6800 Ultras, it seems that paying
$600 to $800 for two 256MB 6800GTs is still the smart option. You
aren't likely to notice any performance advantage above two 6800GTs with
the naked eye.

My guess is that we will need to see a more advanced gaming engine
before the 512MB card holds any real advantage.

Cuzman wrote:

A couple of 512MB versions of the 6800 Ultra are now available at
Newegg:
- XFX PVT45FYDF2 http://tinyurl.com/dnje3 $799.99
- BFG Tech BFGR68512UOCX http://tinyurl.com/9gwon $884.00

Wow, that's steep! These prices are a pure rip-off....

I've only checked one review of BFG's OC version and things don't look
promising.

Certainly not...

Two major factors are on the negative side for the immediate future of
this 512MB card. Firstly, the benchmarks included the usual suspects,
Doom3, Far Cry and Half-Life 2, and these games are predicted to be
consistent engines for the next couple of years. Secondly, the system
setup of an Athlon 64 X2 4800+, Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, 2x 512MB Corsair
CMX512-3200XLPRO and 34GB Western Digital Raptor is about as fast as
we will see until into 2006. With both of these factors combined, I
really can't see anywhere that this 512MB card is going to grab any
bragging rights from.

Well, some time ago I had the chance to play around with Doom³ on a
512MB card (Quadro FX 4400 which basically is a GF 6800 Ultra) on a Dual
XEON 3.6GHz machine at work. The difference to a QuadroFX 3400 (also a
6800U but w. 256MB only) was really really marginal when running at
ultra settings with everything on. Doom³ is the only game that can use
textures that are too big for 256MB cards. These textures don't look
better than at high settings but just consume more memory. All other
games use textures that easily fit into the 256MB of modern high end
gamer cards, sometimes even 128MB are enough...

It's basically the same like buying a Radeon 9600 or Geforce FX 5500
with 256MB - the card is simply too slow for the bigger memory to be
useful. And there's another factor why a 512MB 6800U is wasted money: on
AGP, texture swapping was extremely slow. With PCIe, this is much faster
now, and not that much a bottleneck like it was on AGP.

We can be sure that 256MB will be enough for the next 2-3 years. Heck,
128MB on a 6600GT will certainly be good enough for at least another
year (if not more!). And at the time when games are really requiring
512MB card the 800$ 6800U w. 512MB simply will be too slow...

Now look at this from a financial point of view. You can get two
256MB 6800 Ultras for the price of one 512MB card, and the SLI option
will thrash the 512MB card. Instead of paying $800 to $900 for a
512MB 6800 Ultra, or $850 to $1,050 for two 256MB 6800 Ultras, it
seems that paying $600 to $800 for two 256MB 6800GTs is still the
smart option.

Instead of buying a 6800U w. 512MB I'd wait for the next generation to
be available which will certainly outperform the 512MB 6800U with only
256MB...

You aren't likely to notice any performance advantage
above two 6800GTs with the naked eye.

Certainly not.

My guess is that we will need to see a more advanced gaming engine
before the 512MB card holds any real advantage.

I really doubt that there ever will be an advantage of the 512MB card.
As I said, today it's wasted money, and in the future the 6800U GPU will
limit the cards usefullness for future games...

These cards are basically penis enlargements for people that already
have everything else...

Benjamin