NVIDIA's GeForce 6600GT AGP: The Little Bridge that Could
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 16, 2004 12:15 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Head to Head: NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT vs. NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
If we take a look at the price of the GeForce FX 5900XT in our RealTime Pricing Engine, we see a card that hovers somewhere around $185. The 5900XT is the lower rung of the high end graphics cards from NVIDIA at the end of the year in 2003.
Under Doom 3, the 5900XT just can't keep up with the 6600GT, especially at higher resolutions. We are seeing the same type of pattern we saw with the 9800 Pro head to head: as resolution increases, so does the 6600GT's lead.
|
Doom 3 Performance |
|||
|
|
NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
640 x 480 |
65.6 |
105.9 |
61.4% |
|
800 x 600 |
50.2 |
100.3 |
99.8% |
|
1024 x 768 |
36.3 |
82 |
125.9% |
|
1280 x 1024 |
25.4 |
58.7 |
131.1% |
|
1600 x 1200 |
18.9 |
43.4 |
129.6% |
|
Winner |
|
- |
6600GT |
This test isn't even a contest. The 6600GT makes short work of the 5900XT under valve's VST test. Though, with Half-Life two finally released, we'll have to see just how good a predictor of performance the VST is.
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Counterstrike: Source Visual Stress Test Performance |
|||
|
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NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
640 x 480 |
81.8 |
191.8 |
134.5% |
|
800 x 600 |
60.6 |
175.3 |
189.3% |
|
1024 x 768 |
40.2 |
133.3 |
231.6% |
|
1280 x 1024 |
24.8 |
83.3 |
235.9% |
|
1600 x 1200 |
18.9 |
68 |
259.8% |
|
Winner |
|
- |
6800GT |
|
Unreal Tournament 2004 |
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|
|
NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
640 x 480 |
72.7 |
72.3 |
0.6% |
|
800 x 600 |
71.4 |
71.4 |
0.0% |
|
1024 x 768 |
67.2 |
70.5 |
4.9% |
|
1280 x 1024 |
51.9 |
62.8 |
21.0% |
|
1600 x 1200 |
39.1 |
50.2 |
28.4% |
|
Winner |
|
- |
6600GT |
The 5900XT is not playable at anything above 1024x768 in FarCry, but the 6600GT holds on and manages over a 100% performance advantage at the higher resolutions.
|
Far Cry 1.3 Performance |
|||
|
|
NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
640 x 480 |
60.2 |
86.3 |
43.4% |
|
800 x 600 |
45.7 |
80.8 |
76.8% |
|
1024 x 768 |
33.3 |
67.9 |
103.9% |
|
1280 x 10 24 |
23 |
48.7 |
111.7% |
|
1600 x 1200 |
16.4 |
37.1 |
126.2% |
|
Winner |
|
- |
6600GT |
Halo continues the 6600GT reign with almost double the performance across the board.
|
Halo 1.05 Performance |
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|
|
NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
640 x 480 |
71.4 |
131.7 |
84.5% |
|
800 x 600 |
55.1 |
111.7 |
102.7% |
|
1024 x 768 |
39.7 |
82.4 |
107.6% |
|
1280 x 1024 |
26.5 |
56.9 |
114.7% |
|
1600 x 1200 |
19.2 |
41.3 |
115.1% |
|
Winner |
|
- |
6600GT |
This OpenGL benchmark shows a tie between the two boards, and at lower resolutions the 5900XT board is acutally leading the 6600GT here. This older quake III engine based game definitely shows a side we haven't seen, but so far the 5900XT has tied one benchmark while the 6600GT has won all the rest. Let's contine on and see what the rest stack up like.
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Wolfenstein: |
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NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
640 x 480 |
111.8 |
107.6 |
3.8% |
|
800 x 600 |
110.3 |
107.5 |
2.5% |
|
1024 x 768 |
103.7 |
104.2 |
0.5% |
|
1280 x 1024 |
84 |
88 |
4.8% |
|
1600 x 1200 |
64 |
68 |
6.3% |
|
Winner |
|
- |
Tie |
In Battlefield vietnam, the results are pretty steadily in favor of the 6600GT: it wins with over a 50% performance advantage every time.
|
Battlefield - |
|||
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NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
640 x 480 |
139 |
217 |
56.1% |
|
800 x 600 |
106 |
180 |
69.8% |
|
1024 x 768 |
76 |
134 |
76.3% |
|
1280 x 1024 |
53 |
97 |
83.0% |
|
1600 x 1200 |
36 |
68 |
88.9% |
|
Winner |
|
- |
6600GT |
Running with 78% higher fps at 1600x1200, the 6600GT closes out its victory against the 5900XT.
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The Sims 2 Performance |
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NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT |
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT |
Performance Advantage |
|
800 x 600 |
33.4 |
50.3 |
50.6% |
|
1024 x 768 |
29 |
42.1 |
45.2% |
|
1280 x 1024 |
20.3 |
32.6 |
60.6% |
|
1600 x 1200 |
15.6 |
27.8 |
78.2% |
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Winner |
|
- |
6600GT |
In every test but one the 6600GT dominated the 5900XT in performance and value. In our head to head battles, price was a key factor. Now that the 6600GT has entered the AGP market, there is no reason to look at either of these other two AGP based products.
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Avalon - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
Thank you for taking our concerns into consideration, Anand :)coldpower27 - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
That's intresting, how the 6800 GT dips like that in Sims 2 performance at 12x10, do you have any reason why? Even stranger still how the X800 Pro seems to be actually beating the 6800 GT in this particular game in high res. However it's FPS seems to be limited to 40FPS max across the board :S. Also could you possibly bench the Sims 2 under 1152x864, I would like to see what the performance of the 6800 GT is at that res for this game.Oh good review, would like a 300/700 6800 LE 8x1/4 and 325/700 6800 Vanilla 12x1/5 tested as well. To see how those compare to these cards,
ciwell - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
Hmm...try to get the BFG OC one then...:D :D
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
Thanks for the comments. We did not have a vanilla 6800 available for testing for this review, but as soon as we get one in we will make sure to include it in our upcoming reviews.Take care,
Anand
ciwell - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
Yeah, I am wondering where the vanilla 6800 is too? It clearly is in direct competition with the 6600GT.ciwell - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
CU - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
I would also like to know why the 6800nu is not included. The message may not be so clear if the 6800nu was included.9700prolover - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
I love the last sentense. Even the writer of anandtech loves the "the message is clear, xxx wins/fails" style of conclusion.Avalon - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
Where was the vanilla 6800? You can get a BFG 6800 OC at Outpost for $249.99, and it's in stock at this moment. I recall the 6800 beating the 6600GT in 60% of benchmarks, while losing out in 40% of benchmarks. If the 6600GT is going to cost $225, that won't be much fun. I'd rather take the BFG 6800 and unlock the pipes and vertex shaders, artifact permitting.Decoder - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
What about the video decoding issues on the NVidia chips? Has that been resolved?http://techreport.com/ja.zz?comments=7535