NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT: Bringing NV4x to the Masses

Final Words

It is clear that the 6600 GT hits a very sweet spot in the market. The card consistently performs on par with some of the lower end high end cards (6800 and X800 Pro) at lower resolutions below 1600x1200 without AA and AF enabled. This should be enough to sell any casual gamer on the card. Let alone the fact that even when AA and AF are turned on, the NV43 based GT is still a better option than the 5950 U and the 9800 XT in performance. Considering that these two previous gen cards go for at least $300 anywhere we could find them, this makes the 6600 GT a much better buy. On top of that, previous gen cards that go for $200 will be much less performing still. All this adds up to mean that even the hardcore gamer who just doesn't have $300 to $500 to spend will be very satisfied with a 6600 GT. If $200 is in the budget, and PCI Express is a necessity, the 6600 GT is absolutely the way to go.

Unfortunately, at this point in time, those who want PCIe graphics are stuck buying only Intel based systems. AMD fairly consistently leads (in some cases utterly dominates) Intel in gaming performance. We are very reluctant to recommend building a PCI Express system intended for gaming until someone manages to launch a chipset with PCI Express support for AMD systems.

Hopefully, NVIDIA will crank out an AGP follow up their native PCIe solution at least as quickly as they did the reverse earlier this year.

Not wanting to let this review end on such a bittersweet note, we will say that we are very interested in getting down and dirty with some 6600 GT SLI benchmarks as soon as we can convince NVIDIA that they want to send us a connector. We have been very impressed with the 6600 GT, and we are excited about seeing what ATI has to offer for this market segment as well. With current generation coming to the mid range market segment, nobody looses.