Few comments/Q's from new BFG 6800GT owner

[RedShark]

Woe is me :-p Got my $399 BFG Geforce 6800GT yesterday, installed it late last night after work, had a few minutes to try it. Now here I am at work again, not gaming. Then thursday, it's off to vacation. I'll be lucky if I get to spend two hours trying this card over the next two weeks. At least when I get back Doom III should have arrived

So, enough with my sob story. For the few minutes I got to use it, I cranked up UT2k4 to 1280x1024 w/ 16xAF and 8xS AA and, wow, it's like a different game from the Radeon 9500 pro I used to use. It's smoother than before and looks fantastic. The AA is particularly remarkable. Does ATI even offer this new super sampling mode? It really improves the image quality in games that don't stress these latest cards that much (e.g. ut2k4).

Haven't tried oc'ing it yet, temps are at about 60 idle, 84 load. This is in a lian li pc60 case with 4 case fans, so these cards clearly run hot. The PCI slot below the card is free. Does anyone else do anything special to keep these cards cool besides replacing the stock cooling? Is it necessary?

Last question--is there any advantage to using a third party overclocking utility over the provided coolbits registry tweak?

 

[Micas]

Mine loads to ~82. Glad to see I'm not the only one with a toasty 6800. Seems a lot of other threads had cards with much lower load temps. Thought I was having a problem.

 

[blbrchnk]

Nah they actually are spec'd to go over 100C and still be fine. As far as the extra cooling goes, I bought one of the vantec spectrum cards. It's basically a pci dual fan setup that blows upwards to the card, and if you take the faceplate off the heatsink it is supposed to lower your load temps a good bit. I haven't had the chance to install mine, but I shall this evening!