Nvidia 7300 & Nvidia 6800XT

[westy159]

1. I dont quite understand the 7300 range. Its in the newer nvidia geforce 7 series but what have Nvidia done to make it a budget card? Also my friend is looking into buying a PC on limited budget. Would he better off with a card such as the 6600GT rather than a 7300?

2. I own a 6800XT. Now according to this (click) there are 4/8 pixel pipelines not in use on my card depending on what version I have (btw how do I find this out, maybe its the drivers that Im using but the Nvidia control panel is quite lacking in the actual card information). If its safe to do so I'd like to unlock about 4 to make my card equal to the 6800. Ive heard good things about rivatuner but its been a while since my days of the little PC know-it-all, so if someone could guie me in the right direction that would be great :wink:

PS. My most evil post...?

[Shaun]

1. I dont quite understand the 7300 range. Its in the newer nvidia geforce 7 series but what have Nvidia done to make it a budget card? Also my friend is looking into buying a PC on limited budget. Would he better off with a card such as the 6600GT rather than a 7300?

Well, although the 7 series is newer, the 7300 is not too impressive, the 6600GT would be a better option.

2. I own a 6800XT. Now according to this (click) there are 4/8 pixel pipelines not in use on my card depending on what version I have (btw how do I find this out, maybe its the drivers that Im using but the Nvidia control panel is quite lacking in the actual card information). If its safe to do so I'd like to unlock about 4 to make my card equal to the 6800. Ive heard good things about rivatuner but its been a while since my days of the little PC know-it-all, so if someone could guie me in the right direction that would be great :wink:

PS. My most evil post...?

Well, im not an expert in unlocking pipelines, but if they can be unlocked you usually just need to install a new BIOS.

[Incinerate_IV]

I would choose a 7300GT over the 6600GT, just make sure the 7300 is the GT verison. The other versions only has 4 pipelines, the 7300GT has 8.

Or even better, get a 7600GS. It's cheaper than 6600GT and has 12 pipelines vs 8. The 6600GT is really expensive now, probably because nVIDIA stoped making them.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143054

And I wouldn't try to unlock that 6800XT if I were you, not 100% of the cards are unlockable, and you might risk burning your card in the process. Just install CoolBits (Click!) to unlock the hidden overclocking feature in your nVIDIA control panel, and overclock it instead. I usually just click on the auto overclocking button. Remember you have to reinstall Coolbits everytime you reinstall the driver, so just keep the file somewhere on your computer.

[Peter]

I found THIS when i was looking for a new case. Its a specs table for the whole nvidia line up