6600GT vs 6600 (AGP) - 6600 with 256mb ram? XFX PVT43KUD?

[Burticus]

Ok, lots of debate on the forums about the suckage level of the XFX brand of cards. Well, starting today I noticed a new XFX card on Newegg...

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=14-150-083&depa=0

It's the XFX PVT43KUD AGP 6600 with 256mb ram... and it's cheaper than ALL the other 6600 cards at $189! It's dual DVI just like the other XFX 6600 GT card. The heatsink looks small and silver, not like the one on the 6600 GT or at least the pictures on the net anyway.

What scares me :

A) It's cheaper than every other 6600 card. Even the Apollo, which is the bottom of the barrel.
B) The memory says "256mb DDR" and all of the other cards say "128mb DDR3". Hmmmm.
C) There are no clock speeds detailed for this card. Anywhere. XFX's website has scant info as usual.

Were I rich I would be the pioneer and order it to see what the deal is. But I am the exact opposite of rich, this will be the only 'puter upgrade I get this year. I want to do it right and not play RMA roulette for the next 6 months.

I love Newegg, but I've noticed on the other XFX cards they sell now have a disclaimer at the bottom " can be returned for exact same product only"! This does not instill me with lots of XFX confidence.

So, double the ram + cheaper = better? Or price foulup? Pricegrabber only has 1 match and it's the one at Newegg. Maybe it's just brand new... I do wish I could find some clock speeds, benchmarks, something, anything about this new card.

 

[blazerazor]

Dude, I just bought a BFG 6800oc for $333@BB. And I wish I would have got a deal like this.
That extra Ram has got to come in handy for future games.
I hope I didn't make a mistake buying it.

 

[telstar1]

Of course this just came out ... 'cause I just bought my 128MB card a week ago.
I hate computers....

Ah well ... 'Least mine is a 6600GT.

 

[Formerly Radeon Guy]

First Of All XFX Sucks and You Know That

Second is that when you said its cheaper then every other 6600 you were probably looking at a 6600 GT not a standard 6600

Third Plain 6600 start at about 130

Fouth the 6600 GT rapes a regular 6600 even if it has 256mb of memory

Fiifth 6600 gts only have 128 mb of memory not 256mb

 

[2Xtreme21]

Originally posted by: Formerly Radeon Guy
First Of All XFX Sucks and You Know That

Second is that when you said its cheaper then every other 6600 you were probably looking at a 6600 GT not a standard 6600

Third Plain 6600 start at about 130

Fouth the 6600 GT rapes a regular 6600 even if it has 256mb of memory

Fiifth 6600 gts only have 128 mb of memory not 256mb

 

[Burticus]

Thanks to "Formerly Radeon Guy" for his comments...

"First Of All XFX Sucks and You Know That "

I suspect it, but I don't know from firsthand experience that is true. Probably is true though.

"Second is that when you said its cheaper then every other 6600 you were probably looking at a 6600 GT not a standard 6600"

How many AGP 6600 that are not GT's are there? According to Pricegrabber.... none except this one. Newegg only carried GT's in AGP before this one. PCI-E 6600's are cheaper, yes.... but I wasn't talking about PCI-E.

"Fouth the 6600 GT rapes a regular 6600 even if it has 256mb of memory...Fiifth 6600 gts only have 128 mb of memory not 256mb "

Elimate PCI-E out of the discussion and I don't know that.

So while I have no firsthand evidence that XFX blows donkeys, I suspect it it so, and can kind of agree with the first statement. But the rest seems fairly non-topic oriented to me....

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: Formerly Radeon Guy
First Of All XFX Sucks and You Know That

Second is that when you said its cheaper then every other 6600 you were probably looking at a 6600 GT not a standard 6600

Third Plain 6600 start at about 130

Fouth the 6600 GT rapes a regular 6600 even if it has 256mb of memory

Fiifth 6600 gts only have 128 mb of memory not 256mb

 

[Gamingphreek]

256mb of RAM will have higher latencies that the card will have to overcome. That is why the 256mb version of cards like the 5200 are not recommended. They simply aren't fast enough to address all of it effectively.

Secondly the 6600GT will be much better. GDDR3 alone is much better.

Go with the 128mb GDDR3 6600GT. If you want more power the 6800NU is good or even if you have double the money the 6800GT.

-Kevin

 

[Pete]

Originally posted by: blazerazor
Dude, I just bought a BFG 6800oc for $333@BB. And I wish I would have got a deal like this.
That extra Ram has got to come in handy for future games.
I hope I didn't make a mistake buying it.

$333 for a plain 6800? That sounds way too expensive. Aren't 6800GTs less than $400? An extra 20% nets you >40% greater fillrate and twice as much of >40% faster memory in the form of a 6800GT. I'd return that BFG, if you can, or find it for less. Heck, it's still $250 @ Outpost (tho also still backordered), and it's $300 with Far Cry @ Chumbo (minus a $40-60 rebate if you mail BFG any old video card--still back ordered, though). PriceGrabber also shows a bunch of other 6800GTs for ~$400.

I don't recall a single benchmark showing a 6800 (even a 6800OC) being worth over 50% more than a $200 6600GT, either, if you don't want to reach up to the $400 level.

To the OP: I agree with everyone else that a 128MB 6600GT is a smarter buy than a 256MB 6600 for the same money. All that memory doesn't matter if the card is too slow. BTW, consider the noise level of the cooler. The XFX cooler isn't that quiet, from what I've read. I believe the MSI 6600GT's custom cooler is quieter.

 

[Burticus]

If anyone cares I've sent an email to Newegg asking for more details. We'll see but I don't expect clock speeds, which is what I want...

 

[Wolfshanze]

Burticus, NVidia is opening up the AGP card format to other chipsets, and I do believe the "vanilla" 6600 is now getting the AGP treatment.

The 6600 (vanilla) GeForce cards only use standard DDR memory (not DDR3 like the GT version) so the vanilla 6600 memory is not of the same quality as the DDR3 equiped 6600GTs.

Also, the core & memory speed differance is CONSIDERABLE between the two cards.

I can assure you, a 128MB DDR3 equipped 6600GT will run circles around a 256MB DDR(1) equiped 6600 (vanilla).

I recently upgraded my system to a BFG 6600GT OC, and gave my wife my "old" FX5900 (with 128MB)... my wife had a FX5600 (with 256MB). Even though her old card had twice as much memory, the core speed differance between a FX5600 and a FX5900 had the FX5900 doing considerably better despite the memory in every game and benchmark she ran... I can assure you the differance between a 6600 with 256MB of DDR1 and a 6600GT with 128MB of DDR3 will give you similar results with the GT coming out clearly on top in performance.

Of course, this begs to ask why "performance" cards are still shipping with 128MB while "cheapo" cards are getting 256MB... it seems more a marketing move then a performance move. I wondered the same thing with the FX line of cards... the GeForce6 series seems to be repeating.

You get what you pay for... the 128MB 6600GTs cost more then the 256MB 6600s because the GTs are that much better in performance... don't let the crappy quality memory fool you, the GT is the better card regardless!