Splinter Cell: 6800 crushes 9800

[cluthz]

According to the benches from xlr8yourmac.com, with 6800ultra vs 9800pro in a dual 2.0 G5 crushes the 6800ultra in the Splinter Cell tests, but with a smaller margin in most other apps. 10.3.6 is said to improve the 6800 performance.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/mac_6800ultra_review/index4.html

[edesignuk]

Well, the 9800 Pro is quite an old card now...not exactly surprising that a brand new 6800 256MB (vs 128MB 9800) "crushes" the old boy is it. I could have told you that without doing any testing what-so-ever.

[cluthz]

Well, the 9800 Pro is quite an old card now...not exactly surprising that a brand new 6800 256MB (vs 128MB 9800) "crushes" the old boy is it. I could have told you that without doing any testing what-so-ever.

Yeah, I know that the 9800s is last years high end, but many of the mac tests so far shows that the 6800 hasn't crushed the 9800.
I still think there is some driver tweaking before we really sees what the 6800 is up to.

Compared to PC benches between 6800 and 9800, i've found most of the mac9800 and mac6800 benches a bit dissapointing. (i'm not talking compared to pc, but mac vs mac)

[applekid]

The 6800 will be the card that we all thought it would become and even be better than the 9800 soon enough. Apple only release half-assed drivers for now. But, with 10.3.6, we should expect a jump in performance and make it the card we expected it to be.

[zakee00]

Yeah, I know that the 9800s is last years high end, but many of the mac tests so far shows that the 6800 hasn't crushed the 9800.
I still think there is some driver tweaking before we really sees what the 6800 is up to.

Compared to PC benches between 6800 and 9800, i've found most of the mac9800 and mac6800 benches a bit dissapointing. (i'm not talking compared to pc, but mac vs mac)
The reason the 6800 hasnt really crushed the 9800 is because the games in question were probably CPU limited. The 6800 is twice as fast as the 9800, period. Check out the PC benchmarks for that data. Man, that is a SWEET card though...wish i had it in my powerbook, along with a 2.5GHz G5...now THATS a desktop replacement :D

[Lord Blackadder]

The inexorable march of technology really tramples video cards; It seems like if you order the latest card, it will be obsolete before FedEx can get it to you. Hmm, actually kinda true with the 6800. :eek:

Lets leave the poor 9800 out of this - the real question is how the 6800 stacks up against ATI's latest, which are just around the corner for Mac users.

Slighty OT - I read somewhere that the 6800 runs faster using ATI pixel shaders than its own; did anyone else hear that or am I crazy?

[applekid]

Slighty OT - I read somewhere that the 6800 runs faster using ATI pixel shaders than its own; did anyone else hear that or am I crazy?

Read the benchmarks, it's true, with Halo anyway.

I do have to wonder why though. Anybody got any info? I'd assume the current Apple drivers are underdeveloped, but I may be wrong.

[vraxtus]

Yeah, I know that the 9800s is last years high end, but many of the mac tests so far shows that the 6800 hasn't crushed the 9800.
I still think there is some driver tweaking before we really sees what the 6800 is up to.

Compared to PC benches between 6800 and 9800, i've found most of the mac9800 and mac6800 benches a bit dissapointing. (i'm not talking compared to pc, but mac vs mac)

...

The 6800's chipset is about 3X faster than the current gen 9800 cards. Coupled with the fact that nVidia is notoriously better with their OpenGL support than ATI, we're going to see much better results over the 9800. As it's been said, the X800 is the only true contender and it's not out yet. Keep in mind however that the best X800 (the Platinum Ed XT) is clocked higher than the fastest 6800. Also as it has been said, the highest gen cards available right now are severly CPU limited, so I'd wait to test performance on a much higher end system.

[Vlade]

...

The 6800's chipset is about 3X faster than the current gen 9800 cards. Coupled with the fact that nVidia is notoriously better with their OpenGL support than ATI, we're going to see much better results over the 9800. As it's been said, the X800 is the only true contender and it's not out yet. Keep in mind however that the best X800 (the Platinum Ed XT) is clocked higher than the fastest 6800. Also as it has been said, the highest gen cards available right now are severly CPU limited, so I'd wait to test performance on a much higher end system.

Well it is more like 2X as fast, and I doubt you can find any benchmarks that show 3X (maybe at 16X anti aliasing). You are also comparing two separate chips clock speeds, which can not be done, its like comparing a 3GHZ P4 to a 3GHZ Athlon, the Athlon will kill the P4 at that speed. You are right about the CPU for some games, but it all depends on what game.

[vraxtus]

Well it is more like 2X as fast, and I doubt you can find any benchmarks that show 3X (maybe at 16X anti aliasing). You are also comparing two separate chips clock speeds, which can not be done, its like comparing a 3GHZ P4 to a 3GHZ Athlon, the Athlon will kill the P4 at that speed. You are right about the CPU for some games, but it all depends on what game.


Ummm even ATI professes that the X800 is 3X as fast as the 9800, so I have no idea where you're getting your data. Secondly a lot of benches show the 6800 to be in general faster than the X800... so you're wrong. Thanks.

[Little Endian]

The Geforce 6800 series crushes the 9800 regardless of platform.

http://barefeats.com/gef6800.html

It gets better with Higher Resolutions.

http://barefeats.com/gef6800b.html

The performance gain of the 6800 series cards will only grow greater as it's drivers for the Mac are still in it's infancy and the fact that more and more Games will take advantage of capabilites that the 9800 lacks.

The PC benchmarks for 6800 series comparing against the ATI 9800 and X800 series are here. Even the 6800GT can wallop the X800XT in many cases. 6800 Ultra reigns supreme in almost all areas and only the X800 Platinum Extreme version can compete.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2113

[Vlade]

Ummm even ATI professes that the X800 is 3X as fast as the 9800, so I have no idea where you're getting your data. Secondly a lot of benches show the 6800 to be in general faster than the X800... so you're wrong. Thanks.

3DMark 2003 is a good indicator of the speed of a video card (because in 2003 the CPU made almost no difference in score). http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-04.html#3dmark_2003 , The 9800 pro got 6000 and the X800 xt pe got 1220 .

Did I say one thing about the 6800 being slower than the X800? I said that comparing the clock speeds of different chips is inaccurate, but nothing about performance (performace = clock * work per clock)

[vraxtus]

3DMark 2003 is a good indicator of the speed of a video card (because in 2003 the CPU made almost no difference in score). http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-04.html#3dmark_2003 , The 9800 pro got 6000 and the X800 xt pe got 1220 .

Did I say one thing about the 6800 being slower than the X800? I said that comparing the clock speeds of different chips is inaccurate, but nothing about performance (performace = clock * work per clock)

Well go tell ATI they're marketing false information then. Thanks.

[ZildjianKX]

Ever feel like you need the best videocard for the mac to compensate for the low FPS that mac games yet?

I personally don't see any mac games out at the moment that are even worth spending that much on a videocard for. Even Doom 3 is a bit *yawn*. Now if we were getting HL2...