• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

6600GT vs 6800GT

T

THEJIMBO

Junior Member
Is the jump in performance really that significant?

I don't know if I'm willing to shell out 200 extra bucks to get the 6800GT instead of the 6600GT...but I do want a card that will last me a few years, so that is definitely a factor.

In case anyone asks, this is the computer I am about to build:

AMD 64 3000+ (I plan to OC this)
Abit AN8 MB
1 gig of Corsair XMS RAM
WD 74GB Raptor
SB Audigy 2 ZS

Another thing...what manufacturer would you all recommend for the video card? I was going to go with Leadtek since I have used them in the past and not had any problems but if anyone has another suggestion I would love to hear it.
 
Originally posted by: Gamer X
Go 6800gt,It has 16 pipes vs 12 pipes for the 6600gt.a significant performance boost.
Click to expand...

Sorry, you're incorrect.

6800GT is 16X1 6VP 350/1000 with 256bit memory access.

6600GT is 8X1 3VP 500/1000 with 128 bit memory access.

Half the fillrate, half the bandwidth, half the VPs equal half the performance for the 6600GT in many situations. The GT is worth the money if you're looking long term, only possible way around it is to do 6600GT SLI for most of a 6800GTs performance, but cost split into two payments if you desire.
 
Originally posted by: THEJIMBO
Is the jump in performance really that significant?

I don't know if I'm willing to shell out 200 extra bucks to get the 6800GT instead of the 6600GT...but I do want a card that will last me a few years, so that is definitely a factor.

In case anyone asks, this is the computer I am about to build:

AMD 64 3000+ (I plan to OC this)
Abit AN8 MB
1 gig of Corsair XMS RAM
WD 74GB Raptor
SB Audigy 2 ZS

Another thing...what manufacturer would you all recommend for the video card? I was going to go with Leadtek since I have used them in the past and not had any problems but if anyone has another suggestion I would love to hear it.
Click to expand...

Depends .. . what RESOLUTION do you game at?

At 10x7 the 6600gt won't be much slower than the 6800gt.

At 16x12 the 6600gt will struggle while the 6800gt will excel.

There is NO "future-proof". Buy what you need for the next 1-2 years.

At about the same time the 6600 users are upgrading their videocards, so will the 6800 users . . . . (assuming each choose a card suited for his gaming res)
. . . DX10 (introduced in '06, games in '07) is gonna KILL the dx9 cards - even SLI'd 6800ultras. 😉

 
Apoppin:
There is NO "future-proof". Buy what you need for the next 1-2 years.

At about the same time the 6600 users are upgrading their videocards, so will the 6800 users . . . . (assuming each choose a card suited for his gaming res)
. . . DX10 (introduced in '06, games in '07) is gonna KILL the dx9 cards - even SLI'd 6800ultras
Click to expand...

It is February of 2005, I'm sure anyone who has nVidia SLi from now till 2007 will have gotten more than fair use from their cards.
 
Originally posted by: apoppin

. . . DX10 (introduced in '06, games in '07) is gonna KILL the dx9 cards - even SLI'd 6800ultras. 😉
Click to expand...

No it wont, because they'll play the game at DX9 level just like 5900 cards play HL2 in DX8.1 What will kill them is the complexity of games in 2007, regardless of DX9 or 10. Look at Ti4600 - even if it can play doom 3 in DX8.0 mode, it cant even handle it at that setting because textures, polygons and vertex and pixel shaders are too much for the gpu and the memory to handle. Regardless, everyone's defition of playable is different. My 8500 still plays HL2 at 1024x768 and Far Cry at 800x600. Sure they look 10x than a DX9 card but 8500 was released in 2001 thats 4 years ago. Thinking that 2 6800Ultra will be dead in 2007 only applies if u consider a card dead if you cant play games at 1600x1200 with it.
 
I have a 6800gt.Want me to be honest? It doesnt worth to put twice as much as a 6600gt for the performance you gain.

Get a 6600gt and put the extra money on something else...like a faster cpu
 
Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Originally posted by: apoppin

. . . DX10 (introduced in '06, games in '07) is gonna KILL the dx9 cards - even SLI'd 6800ultras. 😉
Click to expand...

No it wont, because they'll play the game at DX9 level just like 5900 cards play HL2 in DX8.1 What will kill them is the complexity of games in 2007, regardless of DX9 or 10. Look at Ti4600 - even if it can play doom 3 in DX8.0 mode, it cant even handle it at that setting because textures, polygons and vertex and pixel shaders are too much for the gpu and the memory to handle. Regardless, everyone's defition of playable is different. My 8500 still plays HL2 at 1024x768 and Far Cry at 800x600. Sure they look 10x than a DX9 card but 8500 was released in 2001 thats 4 years ago. Thinking that 2 6800Ultra will be dead in 2007 only applies if u consider a card dead if you cant play games at 1600x1200 with it.
Click to expand...

it'll look like FC gfx played on a GF4 or a Radeon 8500. Sub-par for anyone used to Ultra performance. 😛

WTF is "fair use"?
:roll:
 
By 2007 windows codenamed longhorn will be well here and you will know its got a 3d desktop and dx is replaced / renamed to avalon and you can read on web your normal use of pc will be party controled by how good a gpu you got, and i assume most of us will be on 64bit version but there is both 32 and 64 and avail on cdr and dvd.

For time being winFS is still said to be not in the final as it was a add on running ontop of ntfs file system, in early alphas, but l-h will soon show its head as a beta, late from original date of oct 2004, but again MS can move the goalposts in any direction and change this.

There was some reg hack around to let you see the 3d stars on the desktop, prob avail in google.

As part of the biggest windows beta irc channel team i know these things but info changes all time and i gave up on l-h as not work with my sata controler (silicon image) and its lot of messing to use eise then ghost to sata after changing files to make it work, but some other sata controlers are ok with it, but its till alpha and buggy.
 
Originally posted by: apoppin
Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Originally posted by: apoppin

. . . DX10 (introduced in '06, games in '07) is gonna KILL the dx9 cards - even SLI'd 6800ultras. 😉
Click to expand...

No it wont, because they'll play the game at DX9 level just like 5900 cards play HL2 in DX8.1 What will kill them is the complexity of games in 2007, regardless of DX9 or 10. Look at Ti4600 - even if it can play doom 3 in DX8.0 mode, it cant even handle it at that setting because textures, polygons and vertex and pixel shaders are too much for the gpu and the memory to handle. Regardless, everyone's defition of playable is different. My 8500 still plays HL2 at 1024x768 and Far Cry at 800x600. Sure they look 10x than a DX9 card but 8500 was released in 2001 thats 4 years ago. Thinking that 2 6800Ultra will be dead in 2007 only applies if u consider a card dead if you cant play games at 1600x1200 with it.
Click to expand...

it'll look like FC gfx played on a GF4 or a Radeon 8500. Sub-par for anyone used to Ultra performance. 😛

WTF is "fair use"?
:roll:
Click to expand...


Well to be fair, I had a 9700 Pro (a two year old card) and upgraded to an X800 Pro. Sure the X800 Pro allowed me to play HL 2 flawlessly at 16x12 with some aa/af thrown in ...but it wasn't like the 9700 Pro was unusable. Far from it. I could play at 12x7 and it still looked fantastic.
 
A 6800GT can be up to twice as fast as a 6600GT, and will be so at high resolutions with AA. So, both cards offer the same price/performance if we're judging by "HRAA" (originally nV's term for high res AA; my def is 12x10 or higher with some AA) framerates.

If you'll be gaming at 10x7 with some AA or a higher res without AA, a 6600GT is probably a smarter buy. But the 6800GT's doubled RAM and bandwidth and quadrupled ROPs makes it the way to go for high-res, exquisitely-textured, jaggy-free gaming.

Nit-pick: the 6800GT doesn't have twice the fillrate of the 6600GT, but it can be twice as fast for other reasons (bandwidth, mainly). Crossbarred ROPs complicate the "fillrate" term even further.
 
Originally posted by: KevinH
Originally posted by: apoppin
Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Originally posted by: apoppin

. . . DX10 (introduced in '06, games in '07) is gonna KILL the dx9 cards - even SLI'd 6800ultras. 😉
Click to expand...

No it wont, because they'll play the game at DX9 level just like 5900 cards play HL2 in DX8.1 What will kill them is the complexity of games in 2007, regardless of DX9 or 10. Look at Ti4600 - even if it can play doom 3 in DX8.0 mode, it cant even handle it at that setting because textures, polygons and vertex and pixel shaders are too much for the gpu and the memory to handle. Regardless, everyone's defition of playable is different. My 8500 still plays HL2 at 1024x768 and Far Cry at 800x600. Sure they look 10x than a DX9 card but 8500 was released in 2001 thats 4 years ago. Thinking that 2 6800Ultra will be dead in 2007 only applies if u consider a card dead if you cant play games at 1600x1200 with it.
Click to expand...

it'll look like FC gfx played on a GF4 or a Radeon 8500. Sub-par for anyone used to Ultra performance. 😛

WTF is "fair use"?
:roll:
Click to expand...


Well to be fair, I had a 9700 Pro (a two year old card) and upgraded to an X800 Pro. Sure the X800 Pro allowed me to play HL 2 flawlessly at 16x12 with some aa/af thrown in ...but it wasn't like the 9700 Pro was unusable. Far from it. I could play at 12x7 and it still looked fantastic.
Click to expand...

the 9700 and x800s are both DX9 cards. 😛

the 8500 is a dx8 card . . . try running HL2 on it and see if you like the visuals. 😛
:roll:

DX10 is gonna do to DX 9 what DX9 did to DX8 . . . sure, it's still be playable . . . some people are using DX7 cards still.
 
Apoppin, what I was trying to say politely with "fair use" is that using a 6800U SLI rig for two years before replacing it is a "fair" amount of time to "use" it. (i.e. you've gotten your money worth out of it)

Expecting to use any computer part longer than two years for high end gaming is a little naieve IMO.
 
Originally posted by: ifesfor
I have a 6800gt.Want me to be honest? It doesnt worth to put twice as much as a 6600gt for the performance you gain.

Get a 6600gt and put the extra money on something else...like a faster cpu
Click to expand...

It all depend on what you consider "worth it", a faster cpu won't make a 6600GT run high end games at high res with AA.

I have a 6600GT SLI rig with a 3800+ (a "faster cpu") Running one 6600GT is OK, about like a 9800XT, but I'm glad I have two.
 
Originally posted by: Rollo
Apoppin, what I was trying to say politely with "fair use" is that using a 6800U SLI rig for two years before replacing it is a "fair" amount of time to "use" it. (i.e. you've gotten your money worth out of it)

Expecting to use any computer part longer than two years for high end gaming is a little naieve IMO.
Click to expand...

what's your point? i have No disagreement with what you have just posted . . . . just surprised that you are pointing me out at all . . . .

you quote me as saying: There is NO "future-proof". Buy what you need for the next 1-2 years. . . . DX10 (introduced in '06, games in '07) is gonna KILL the dx9 cards - even SLI'd 6800ultras . . . . do you have an objection to that? i am stating what i believe, it is in answer to another poster who mentioned "future-proof".

Are you going to nitpick my every post again?
 
Why don't you drop the raptor and use that money towards the 6800GT? Raptors' speed isn't worth the money, and they're noisy. Also they will not improve your loading speeds because most of today's games rely on CPU when loading due to compression/decompression of files. Even RAID 0 doesn't improve today's games load times.
Anyway, it depends totally on the resolution you're gonna play on, as many people have mentioned before.
 
Originally posted by: apoppin
Originally posted by: Rollo
Apoppin, what I was trying to say politely with "fair use" is that using a 6800U SLI rig for two years before replacing it is a "fair" amount of time to "use" it. (i.e. you've gotten your money worth out of it)

Expecting to use any computer part longer than two years for high end gaming is a little naieve IMO.
Click to expand...

what's your point? i have No disagreement with what you have just posted . . . . just surprised that you are pointing me out at all . . . .

you quote me as saying: There is NO "future-proof". Buy what you need for the next 1-2 years. . . . DX10 (introduced in '06, games in '07) is gonna KILL the dx9 cards - even SLI'd 6800ultras . . . . do you have an objection to that? i am stating what i believe, it is in answer to another poster who mentioned "future-proof".

Are you going to nitpick my every post again?
Click to expand...

Not nitpicking Apoppin', just surprised you'd note something 2 years in the future will make a video card obsolete.

They have a pretty short "useful life".
 
Originally posted by: Rollo
Originally posted by: apoppin
Originally posted by: Rollo
Apoppin, what I was trying to say politely with "fair use" is that using a 6800U SLI rig for two years before replacing it is a "fair" amount of time to "use" it. (i.e. you've gotten your money worth out of it)

Expecting to use any computer part longer than two years for high end gaming is a little naieve IMO.
Click to expand...

what's your point? i have No disagreement with what you have just posted . . . . just surprised that you are pointing me out at all . . . .

you quote me as saying: There is NO "future-proof". Buy what you need for the next 1-2 years. . . . DX10 (introduced in '06, games in '07) is gonna KILL the dx9 cards - even SLI'd 6800ultras . . . . do you have an objection to that? i am stating what i believe, it is in answer to another poster who mentioned "future-proof".

Are you going to nitpick my every post again?
Click to expand...

Not nitpicking Apoppin', just surprised you'd note something 2 years in the future will make a video card obsolete.

They have a pretty short "useful life".
Click to expand...
Yes they do . . . . my comments were in direct reply to someone who mentioned "long term". 😉

and i try to plan ahead at least a couple of years 😀
(my current 9800xt is not part of those future plans)



 
Originally posted by: ifesfor
I have a 6800gt.Want me to be honest? It doesnt worth to put twice as much as a 6600gt for the performance you gain.

Get a 6600gt and put the extra money on something else...like a faster cpu
Click to expand...


Yea, i had to throttle back res to play doom3 to reduce stuttering. However, all the eye candy was maxed (save for AA/AF).
 
Or just get a 6800NU, still has 256bit memory, 128 mb though, is underclocked slightly, and has less pipes (that can be unlocked via softmod).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top