Performance

The PNY Verto GeForce 6800 Ultra is right at the top-end of the video card spectrum, where outright performance and features are the most important factors. Since this is an AGP model, our reference system uses the Athlon 64 3800+, a VIA K8T800 Pro AGP 8X motherboard and 2x512-MB of OCZ PC4200 EL memory. This is a super performance base for a video card comparison, as it has the specifications needed for high-end 3D benchmarking, and includes a plethora of enthusiast-level components.

The video card selection is also high-end in nature, and includes the top-rated ATI Radeon X800 XT contender, as well as a GeForce 6800 GT for NVIDIA-specific comparisons. We round out the 3D hardware with the last-generation champions, in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and ATI Radeon 9800 XT. This provides us with a nice cross-section of the top-end enthusiast boards from the past and present, and will give us a great idea of where the PNY Verto GeForce 6800 Ultra fits in. Our operating system is Windows XP Pro SP1 with DirectX 9b, and all video cards have been tested with AGP 8X and 256-MB memory allocated.

Our game benchmark selection includes the standard game tests such as DOOM 3, FarCry, Halo, AquaMark 3, UT 2004, UT 2003, Quake 3: Arena, Comanche 4, X2 Demo, 3DMark 2003 Pro, and Wolf: ET. All testing has been performed using standard 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 32-bit settings, along with high-end 4X anti-aliasing and 8X anisotropic filtering results as well. The 4X AA and 8X AF settings are representative of the detail settings many enthusiasts use for their high-end 3D gaming.

* Please note that unless otherwise stated, all performance graph results equate to the standard "higher is better" format.

Test System

General Settings:
Desktop Resolution: 1024x768
Color Depth: 32-bit
V-Sync: Disabled

Athlon 64 3800+ Reference System:
Processor: Athlon 64 3800+
Memory: 2 x 512-MB OCZ PC4200 EL DDR
Motherboard: MSI MS-6702E
Motherboard chip set: VIA K8T800 Pro
NVIDIA reference drivers: ForceWare 61.77
ATI reference drivers: Catalyst 4.8
Hard-Drive: Dual Western Digital WD360 in RAID 0 Mode
IDE Interface: Serial ATA-150
CD/DVD: AOpen Combo Drive
Power Supply: ANTEC 430 Watt
DirectX 9.0b
Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP1

Video Cards:
PNY Verto GeForce 6800 Ultra 256-MB
ATI Radeon X800 XT 256-MB
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256-MB
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256-MB
ATI Radeon 9800XT 256-MB

DOOM 3 Test Specifics
Version: 1. 0 (retail)

Quake III Arena Test Specifics
Version: 1.30 (retail)

3DMark 2003 Specifics:
Version 1.0 Patched 340

AquaMark Specifics:
Version 3