6800 vs 6600 GT

cpals

Diamond Member
Mar 5, 2001
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I have a HTPC that I'm not using anymore and it had a 128MB 6600GT in it. My computer right now has a 6800 vanilla that came with my Dell. Should I stay with the 6800? Is the GT one any better? I do realize these are outdated, but I really don't have the need for the latest and greatest video card at the moment.

Thanks!
 

Rike

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2004
2,614
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The 6600GT and 6800 (not the GT) were so close in performance at the time they were made, most people wondered why Nvidia bothered shipping both cards.

IIRC, the 6800 has a wider memory bus, but I doubt it will make any real difference at this point. I'd just leave the cards where they are and don't worry about it.
 

ajaidevsingh

Senior member
Mar 7, 2008
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OC 6800 and you got a winner!!

Not 100% sure but you can flash it with GT's BIOS and maybe unlock the pipes "But not 100% that they are not laser cut!!!"
 

Modular

Diamond Member
Jul 1, 2005
5,027
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I would install Riva Tuner and check to see if you can unlock the hardware masked pipes on that vanilla 6800. If you search there are many articles for how to do this and it really does have a fantastic effect on performance. The vanilla 6800 unlocked and overclocked will easily outdo the 6600gt (which was no slouch in its day either, and is still a decent vid card for lower resolution gaming).
 

videogames101

Diamond Member
Aug 24, 2005
6,777
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Originally posted by: ajaidevsingh
OC 6800 and you got a winner!!

Not 100% sure but you can flash it with GT's BIOS and maybe unlock the pipes "But not 100% that they are not laser cut!!!"

god damn, it's been awhile since unlocking pipes!
 

Denithor

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2004
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The 6800 (vanilla) and 6600GT are very, very close in performance (linky) with the 6800 pulling slightly ahead when AA is enabled. Note those resolutions are very low, at higher resolution the increased bandwidth of the 6800 is going to help more.

And yeah, install RivaTuner and see if you can unlock some extra pipelines and/or overclock the card some, should easily beat the 6600GT then.
 

BassBomb

Diamond Member
Nov 25, 2005
8,396
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Are you trying to use any of the special features like hardware acceleration with either card?

6600GT has Mpeg2 acceleration when using PureVideo codec but I do not think the 6800/GT/U had that (since they came out before 6600GT)