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I am not sure who pioneered the see through window packaging on video card boxes but the first time I saw it was on BFG's 5900 card we took a look at back in December. I have read about horror stories of people opening up a box to find out that some jackass replaced what was supposed to be inside the box with a Voodoo 3 or something. eVga's plastic window allows the user to compare the serial number of the card to the serial number on the back of the box as an extra precaution in case the end user somehow has stumbled upon a return.
You know that feeling you get when you've had one too many to drink and your eyes go slightly unfocused and things start doubling? Like that woman with the 4 uh beers? There is a similar feeling without the nausea when peering into the box of the e-GeForce 6800 Ultra. There are two DVI to Vga Adapters, 2 molex splitters and a sign that you are sobering up as there are only one of the following; Installation CD, S-Video Cable, Warranty / Registration Card, User's Guide, Far Cry and of course the 6800 Ultra itself.
Far Cry is a nice bonus as it is one of the games that will really take advantage of the power of the 6800 Ultra. The long awaited 1.2 patch that supports Shader Model 3 has been making its rounds and is expected any day now so lucky owners of 6800 cards can look forward to even faster speeds soon.
One of the benefits with buying an eVga card is their unique Step-Up Program. In a nutshell:
- Participants in the eVGA.com Step-up Program are entitled to exercise one (1) upgrade event during the span of the program, per eligible graphics card.
- The duration of the eVGA.com Step-up Program is limited to 90 days after the date of purchase (the purchase date shown on the invoice).
Basically all you need to do is keep the receipt, box, manuals and pack ins and the full value you have paid for your card can be credited for your next eVga purchase. For those fretting about migrating to a PCIe motherboard in the future, this may be the ultimate solution: get breakneck performance today on the AGP bus and migrate to a PCIe version of the card without the expense of having to buy another card outright.
The Card
The e-GeForce 6800 Ultra is a pretty big and imposing card. eVga has stuck with a reference design meaning that it is a dual slot solution. Heat should not likely be an issue as the 6800s run cooler than the 5950 counterparts. The fan solution on the 6800 series is more traditional with the fan that blows out of the GPU area whereas the reference 5950 solution relied on outside air.
The 6800 does draw a lot of power. The inclusion of two Y splitters was not an accident; there are two molex connectors on the back of the card and they should not be daisy chained into the same rail of the PSU. Nvidia recommends a 350W PSU for stock 6800s and a whopping 480W for users intending to overclock their cards.
Nvidia is playing it very conservatively with both 6800 both in terms of cooling and power. We've talked to other reviewers who've ran the 6800 off of a quality 300W powersupply and had no performance anomalies or otherwise. We had the BFG card up to 428 Mhz with a 350W.
I'm pretty convinced that Nvidia and its partners are playing it safe on both the cooling and power requirements side. The single slot, single molex BFG card was able to hit Ultra speeds and beyond with little effort. For those with no name brand power supplies it would be a good idea to splurge and get a new one. We've toasted a good number of crappy powersupplies here which have in turn taken out the rest of the components in the system.
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