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Can Geforce 6600GT give 6800 a run for the money?

RussianSensation

RussianSensation

Elite Member
It seems the inqurer posted some interesting bits of information about Geforce 6600 series

6800 is of course 325/700 (DDR2) $289 (on pricewatch) 12 pipeline solution.

6600 GT seems to have all the important features of the 6800 cards like PS3.0 support (as nvidia wanted this to trickle through its whole lineup).
But it seems it could come clocked at 500/??? (GDDR3) memory with 8 pipelines

So we have 325 x 12 = 3900 fillrate of the 6800 card and 500 x 8 = 4000 (of course this speed is not yet officially confirmed). But even if the speed is lower (say 450), the GDDR3 is bound to make up for this difference.

But what's the best part? This card is supposed to cost $199. I think 9800Pro doesn't have much longer to live ...

Edit: Here is some more interesting information that just popped up. It seems the top of the line 6600 will have 425mhz core and 900mhz 256-bit DDR making it about 29% more memory bandwidth capable than 6800nu. It is still uncertain whether it will be an 8 or 12 pipeline solution. I highly doubt it will be 12 pipes because it will smoke 6800 and cost $100 less? Either way even with 8 pipes and at $100 less, this could prove to be a very good value card. Latest Details
 
How about putting two 6600GT in SLI mode. Maybe that would even beat the 6800U at about same price tag.
 
I'm wondering if the plain 6800 will make sense once the 6600gt comes out. I'm about ready to go buy the 6800, but I'd hate to see a $100 cheaper card outperform it or match it in 1 month.

Any thoughts?
 
rabbit fighter

You are right 6600GT will be a great bang for the buck and it gets nearly 8000k in 3dmark03. But we don't play 3dmark03 so that is not a final indication of everything.

Let's say 6600GT is clocked at 500/1000, it has 128-bit bus. This is equal to having a 500mhz interface at 256-bit bus. This card will have 8 pipelines x 500 = 4000 fillrate

6800 is 325/700 but with 256-bit bus. That means it already has more memory bandwidth to start with. When you overclock the 700 ram to 850 (most do) you'll get 2x more increase in bandwidth in comparison to a 150mhz overclock on the 128-bit bus memory. Since 6600GT will have DDR1 ram, I doubt that has a lot of headroom for overclocking.

Now 6800 has 12 pipelines x 325 = 3900. Again slightly less, but if you overclock that to 400, you'll get 4800 fillrate and 6600GT will have to overclock to 600 just to match that (probably unrealistic).

We also dont know how many vertex pipelines 6600GT will have but we do know 6800 has 5.

Also 6600GT will be available only as a PCIe version for a little while. So if you have an AGP slot, that'll set you back another 3 weeks or maybe a month before AGP variants are available. I can't be sure if 6600GT will be slower than 6800, but it seems like it will if my logic is correct. Also Nvidia wouldnt want to have a $300 card slower than a $200 to begin with. More favourably for the 6800 card is that you can acquire a retail version for just $270 if you search pricewatch.

If I were you i'd wait until sept 7th when it will be unveiled with benchmarks and then decide on your purchase. 6600GT will surely be faster than 9800Pro/5900xt, but I am not sure if it will touch the 6800 card. If it does, it will be a bargain at that price. I am afraid that 128-bit bus will slow it down with AA/AF applications though just like it did with the 5800Ultra at 500/1000 and its 128-bit bus. Of course that card didnt have 8 full pipelines....
 
I see an AGP version of the 6600GT sitting in my system in the foreseeable future. :heart: Along with a mobile XP chip at 2.4GHz. :heart:
 
Check out these benchmarks, for the 6800 here: http://gear.ign.com/articles/5...32022p1.html?fromint=1

and for the 6600gt here:
http://babelfish.altavista.com...%2fhwdb%2f6600gt-4.htm

According to these,

3dmark03 10x7 normal 66: 8042 68: 8352
.... fillrate multi 66: 3874 68: 3767
.... vertex shader 66: 23.3 68: 21.1
.... pixel shader 66: 108.0 66: 111

3dmark 2001 66: 18,839 68: 15,566

[6600 on a P4 3.4 Ghz, 6800 on an Athlon XP 2700+]

The 6800 is obviously held back by the CPU a bit, but that shouldn't matter much for the fillrate and shaders, right?

It seems insane that a $199 part should beat or tie a $299 part from the same company in the same product cycle. Makes me really hesitate to buy a 6800 though...

Russian, I see what you're saying about the OC room. That's a good point, as is taking the 3dmark scores too seriously, but they shouldn't they be useful for comparing products within a given architecture? I do need AGP, so if I buy 6800 now and the AGP 6600gt doesn't come out until November, I guess you can look at the price difference to be just depreciation.

BB has the 6800 with Doom 3 for $299, which would make the card only $245. Alas, if I hadn't already bought Doom 3 🙁 I don't think I saved my receipt either.


 
actually teh BB deal si you ahve to buy D3 then do a mail in rebate. so your not really getting it that cheap.

Im wondering if maybe they will power up the 6800 just to be sure it doesnt conflict with the 6600gt? Would be nice 🙂 But in reality I see the 6600gt performing just a little over the 9800pro and not at 6800 level
 
Originally posted by: rabbit fighter
Check out these benchmarks, for the 6800 here: http://gear.ign.com/articles/5...32022p1.html?fromint=1

and for the 6600gt here:
http://babelfish.altavista.com...%2fhwdb%2f6600gt-4.htm

According to these,

3dmark03 10x7 normal 66: 8042 68: 8352
.... fillrate multi 66: 3874 68: 3767
.... vertex shader 66: 23.3 68: 21.1
.... pixel shader 66: 108.0 66: 111

3dmark 2001 66: 18,839 68: 15,566

[6600 on a P4 3.4 Ghz, 6800 on an Athlon XP 2700+]

The 6800 is obviously held back by the CPU a bit, but that shouldn't matter much for the fillrate and shaders, right?

It seems insane that a $199 part should beat or tie a $299 part from the same company in the same product cycle. Makes me really hesitate to buy a 6800 though...

Russian, I see what you're saying about the OC room. That's a good point, as is taking the 3dmark scores too seriously, but they shouldn't they be useful for comparing products within a given architecture? I do need AGP, so if I buy 6800 now and the AGP 6600gt doesn't come out until November, I guess you can look at the price difference to be just depreciation.

BB has the 6800 with Doom 3 for $299, which would make the card only $245. Alas, if I hadn't already bought Doom 3 🙁 I don't think I saved my receipt either.
Click to expand...


The $200.00 part does not come close or even beat the $300.00 part. The cpu's tested here play a much larger role than you would think.

To compare, I have a 6800 OC NU card at home with a 3.25 ghz pentium 4 processor (overclocked 2.6c), and it gets 98xx 3d 2003 marks which is over 1000 more than the 6600 gets on a faster processor.

Those scores mean nothing because they were not tested with the same cpu, memory speeds, etc.


 
There was similar discussion about the higher clocked 4 pipe 9600Pro vs the lower clocked 8 pipe 9500Pro. While in theory both should perform similarly, the 9600Pro didn't have any advantage except when the 9600Pro was overclocked and the 9500Pro was not.

I doubt the 6600 will match or surpass the 6800 unless the pricing is far to similar, anything otherwise is most likely wishful thinking.
 
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