A number of previews of nVidia's new "flagship" card have been posted today. There is one on THG, and one on ExtremeTech, as well as others elsewhere. From what I've read (since many of you will be too lazy to read the article ), I'll give you a quick overview. The peformance of the "6800 Ultra" appears to offer superlative performance, such as between 55 and 60 FPS in Halo at a resolution of 1600x1200, but there are some problems. Firstly, nV are STILL using a special bridge to allow for "AGP 16x", which means that the card does not offer PCI Express natively. This will be mistake in the long run in my opinion. Also, nV recommend a PSU of 480W, because you wil need the extra connectors as the 6800 uses two cables, and requires around 110W. Additionally, the graphical quality is not quite as good (at least in Far Cry).

Despite that though, and despite my grudges against nV, I would not be averse to picking up this card. Still, I will be very interested to see ATI new card when it comes out in a few weeks. nVidia is looking pretty good about now...

Indy - I was about to create a post on this! You bastard!

I'm positively underwhelmed by it so far. And it's a lot of money to spend for something that has, imho, been rushed out to steal a march on ATi. And what would be the motive for that I wonder? Ati's new offering might be preferable?

I agree; it does seem a bit rushed, but the numbers are good; at least on the review samples which, we all know, are sometimes much better than the retail versions. Here you go Taw, here is a bit of info on the "X800" card by ATI. I need more to work with though! Personally, I expect ATI's new card to trounce nV's by around 5-10FPS... here's hoping!

Just a pre-warning here, you guys are starting to sound a bit like Ati fanboys.
I am actually hoping that nVidia to grab the performance lead in the next run of vid cards. Ati has mostly held the performance lead for the last 12 months and is now slightly ahead in market share. I'm just a bit worried that if nVidia don't perform they will go the way of 3Dfx, and then we'll be left with a competitionless Ati. Which Im sure everyone will agree that is not a good thing.

Well gee Esqy. What with your cadging for Happy Birthdays and all, I didn't think you had the time.....

Mustang - Mmm, actually you have a point, however nV has been very successful in terms of selling their "nForce" chipsets and mobile chips to manufacturers, and the nForce 3 is supposed to be excellent. I don't think that we have to worry about them going the way of 3DFX - yet. As I said, I have a bit of a grudge against nV, but that does not necessarily mean that I am boycotting their prooducts. I must admit though, that ATI has a much closer relationship with their users, and the fact that they release new drivers every month, with features based upon user input, makes for a better product. Besides, nV had a virtual monopoly for a while; maybe we should see what ATI would do with such power .

Indy - I always have time. It's called "efficiency" . Note: You're goin' down!