Hey all
Yet again, I am waffling back and forth between the 6600 GT and the 6800. Keep in mind:
1) I am in college (means i am po)
2) $50 is enough to talk me into just about anything
Therefore, you can see how hard of a time I am having deciding between a 6800 and a 6600 GT. I looked at a good benchmark comparing the two, and it looks like the 6800 generally rides about 10-20% faster than the 6600. Thats pretty good, but I've been trying to decide if its truly worth the price...especially since 6600GT's are bound to drop to below $200 realtively soon. (I plan on buying one or the other in mid or late January). I'll basically be paying $2.50 -$3 per extra fps.
My target is to run current games at 1024 or 1280 with 2x or 4x AA, with reasonably high detail, and the 6600GT seems to do just fine there. But what about in a 1-2 years? Assuming I want a card that will last me for a while, looking forward into Unreal 3, etc, etc, will I be kicking my ass for not getting a 6800? The success rates for softmodding a standard 6800 are not that encouraging, and if the 6600GT seems to be an 80% replica of the 6800 as far as scaling goes.
Will that trend disappear in the future do to the 128 bit memory bus? Basically I'm buying the last video card I'm ever going to put in my computer before I just build a new one, and by then, I'll be a senior in college and gaming probably won't be as high on my list, esp. with a Mechanical Engineering major. If I can expect the 6600GT to follow a normal trend of scaling down as games get better, and not pull a "5900" on me (i was shocked with the way the NV30's sucked at modern games), then I can deal with 50 rather than 65 fps.
Yet again, I am waffling back and forth between the 6600 GT and the 6800. Keep in mind:
1) I am in college (means i am po)
2) $50 is enough to talk me into just about anything
Therefore, you can see how hard of a time I am having deciding between a 6800 and a 6600 GT. I looked at a good benchmark comparing the two, and it looks like the 6800 generally rides about 10-20% faster than the 6600. Thats pretty good, but I've been trying to decide if its truly worth the price...especially since 6600GT's are bound to drop to below $200 realtively soon. (I plan on buying one or the other in mid or late January). I'll basically be paying $2.50 -$3 per extra fps.
My target is to run current games at 1024 or 1280 with 2x or 4x AA, with reasonably high detail, and the 6600GT seems to do just fine there. But what about in a 1-2 years? Assuming I want a card that will last me for a while, looking forward into Unreal 3, etc, etc, will I be kicking my ass for not getting a 6800? The success rates for softmodding a standard 6800 are not that encouraging, and if the 6600GT seems to be an 80% replica of the 6800 as far as scaling goes.
Will that trend disappear in the future do to the 128 bit memory bus? Basically I'm buying the last video card I'm ever going to put in my computer before I just build a new one, and by then, I'll be a senior in college and gaming probably won't be as high on my list, esp. with a Mechanical Engineering major. If I can expect the 6600GT to follow a normal trend of scaling down as games get better, and not pull a "5900" on me (i was shocked with the way the NV30's sucked at modern games), then I can deal with 50 rather than 65 fps.
