6800GT review by some 'Hanners' guy...

Slight mis-quote there saf1.

 

Am not! I'm just highly opinionated as hell and still got a chip on me shoulder against nVidia, I am NOT 'biased'.

 

That's not really much of a justification. Would it have made sense to compare against a V5500 or GF4MX because that's all that was lying around at the time? Of course not.

 

That's true, you are a fanb.., that's why neutral+fanb..= biased (and not a fanb.. site 8) )

 

I'm not a fanboy, my preferences/opinions are based on facts and are not just blind loyalty to any company.

Ok, then how's about because he had a 9800 pro in his system and he bought himself a 6800 gt and he reviewed it that way because that's the comparison he gets from his upgrade? Does that one sit better with you?

No conspiracy here, we're just having a bitch of a time getting an X800 at EB.

 

This review makes me want to get a 6800 gt now

 

No, because the comparison still makes little sense. I could tell you without running either card that the 6800 would be significantly better than the 9800PRO.

If Hanners had a GF4MX in his system and bought a 6800GT and reviewed it that way to give us the comparison he gets from the upgrade, it's still a poor comparison.

Like I said, if you are going to compare parts, compare them in the same class. Otherwise you might as well leave the comparison off and just give the numbers.

You wouldn't see a car magazine reviewing the latest Ferrari sports car and comparing it to a family saloon, would you? This is the same thing.

 

Yes you have a point but everyone else besides you seems to appreciate the effort that Hanners put in and the information provided in the review. I have a 9800PRO and it was useful to me to see what a 6800GT upgrade would do for me. So your ramblings are not really benefitting anyone.

 

You know what, I've scratched my head about that one several times. Indeed I would prefer a comparison with other products in the same class, and I'm not the only person that has expressed that preference in the past. However, at least B3D are not comparing a review card to the competitors products.

It does make B3D seem more neutral when looking at a Nvidia card to compare it to Nvidia's previous card and show how things have improved. They don't review an ATI R420 card and show how much better it is by comparing it to NV35 or NV30

I appreciate all that. I've been a reviewer in a past life, and I know how it is when it's out of your own pocket. You are limited, and you do the best that you can. I hope you would also appreciate where I am coming from. All these graphs comparing products from different classes just skew the tone of the article. As you said yourself, the presence of an X800 would have changed the focus and conclusion of the piece entirely.

It just seems that if someone is interested in getting NV40 class hardware this time around, they want to see how it this product compares to other hardware in the same class. If you are looking to buy a 6800 or X800, then 9800 PRO doesn't even come up on the radar.

In the meantime, it just makes it look like you are gushing about the NV40 because of it's (expectedly) great comparison to ATI's two year old products. It's like making a person look thinner by surrounding them with fatties.

 

This is a *discussion* about the review isn't it, as instigated by the reviewer himself?

 

I did mis-quote there, didn't I? Damn, sorry about that.

No idea what I did other than a typo...sorry.

 

Yup, but just because he wanted to annoy me by beating me to posting the news first.....as usual.

I think you're missing the point BZB, or we're missing yours, or I'm really baked, or you are, or something; either way lemme try again.

Yes for deciding between getting an nV40 and an R420 a comparison of the two cards would be the best thing. Hanners not only just used what he had, but he also (I think) chose to compare the 9800 pro to the 6800 GT because last generation I think it's pretty safe to say that the 9800 pro was the "gamer's weapon-o-choice" and from everything I've heard/read so far it's looking like the 6800 GT could very well be this rounds "gamer's weapon-o-choice" so comparing how upgrading from last generations "gamer's weapon-o-choice" card to the upcoming generations most likely "gamer's weapon-o-choice" isn't such a bad/useless exercise in futility that you seem to make it out to be.

Just because his review doesn't specifically cover the area you personally want compared doesn't mean the focus of his review wasn't good/useful to a lot of people, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Sorry for the tirade, but I felt like you were being pretty harsh on Hanners and he wasn't really deserving of a bashing.

 

kyle is hardocp right?

 

Yeah, Kyle Bennett is owner/operator/god of HardOCP.

 

Hanners your review does a good job of showing at what settings you will be able to play games at with your new card, which is at the end of the day what you actually want to know. It always better though, as you know, to have an idea what settings the card in direct competition would allow you to run at as well though

I still think its a nice review although one quick question, if you dont think the halo time demo is representative of gameplay why not use fraps instead?

 

Hanners did make a poor error IMO though, The Geforce FX anti aliasing should not look like that unless he used buggy drivers.

Some of the FX/6800 beta drivers just default to 8xS for 6800 cards inapropriately using the wrong geometry sampling for 8xS, Because the 4x RGMS x 1x2 SS doesnt work properly on them.

I think he should adjust his 8xS mode to properly reflect the 2 RGMS x 2x2 Super Sampling method found on FX cards. TBH Hanners surely you had to notice that anti aliasing method was broken, When I investigated it on my FX card it didnt take 4 mins to discover something was wrong.