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
Final Words
NVIDIA's 6600GT was a strong performer when it was released as a PCI Express solution, but now as an AGP card it is even stronger for two reasons:
1) The market for a $200 - $250 AGP card is currently much larger than the market for a PCI Express version of such a card, and
2) ATI will be very late to market with their X700 XT AGP, thus giving the 6600GT AGP a unique window of opportunity for the remainder of 2004.
Compared to the $200 - $300 AGP cards available today, the GeForce 6600GT AGP can't be beat. While the Radeon 9800 Pro offers close performance in older games, switch to any of the latest titles and the 6600GT truly spreads its wings.
The performance improvement the 6600GT offers over NVIDIA's older $200 price point card, the 5900XT, is nothing short of amazing. The performance comparisons we showed here today are a testament to how much NVIDIA has improved their core architecture since the days of NV3x, with the 6600GT completely demolishing the 5900XT in performance. Even the $400 5900 Ultra is outperformed by the 6600GT in almost all of the benchmarks.
NVIDIA didn't do anything that ATI couldn't have done with the 6600GT AGP, however it was NVIDIA's PCI Express to AGP bridge that they tested and validated several months ago that gave NVIDIA the time to market advantage over ATI.
For the first time in recent history our GPU recommendation is clear: the best bang for your AGP buck is none other than the GeForce 6600GT.
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Visual - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
i think it's important to compare the 6600GT with the normal 6800 and even the OEM 6800LEs that can be found around... also, any non-GT 6600s? because all these cards are around the best performance/value ratio... you should try to find/show which one is the best buy. you should also consider the 6800's chance of modding...nserra - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
#54But if the nvidia AGP numbers are equal to PCIe, wouldn’t ati numbers too? Is it because the card doesn’t exist?
Why do you keep talking so much about the nvidia VP, when Ati has this feature since 2002, is it because it doesn’t work?
DerekWilson - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
#53There will be no x700 agp before years end. If we had one to test we would love to have included numbers for it.
-- Derek Wilson
nserra - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
#7 DecoderThey can be solved, the funny thing is that Ati as decoding features since 07/18/02 and didn’t need of lots of transistors or processors to do that, and no one says that! Its like is a nv only feature. http://www.ati.com/vortal/videoinnovations/flash/i...
#28 draazeejs
There is no X700 AGP, but even so the 9800 does a great job for a 2 years old card.
But there should be an X700 PCIe in the test to see how fast it is over the 6600.
#29 Regs
You are absolutely right; some one should pay for having recommended nvidia cards over Ati in some “past” reviews.
#31 Cybercat
9700 cards aren’t that bad...
#32 vailr
See my #7 reply.
#34 Anand Lal Shimpi
Yeah, Ati as encoding and decoding since 07/18/02 and I didn’t remember anyone talking about it. The new Ati driver as WMV acceleration option also, why I didn’t get tested yet!!! Just because of the nvidia fancy name “Video processor” yeah right, they are playing catch up with Ati they were 2 years late!
#38 ChronoReverse
You are so relying in the SM3.0, is a new shading language, which delivers new shading code. Are you sure it will be that BIG. Remember that Microsoft from PS1.1->1.4 calls DirectX8.1 and from SM2.0->SM3.0 Microsoft call it DirectX9.0c, if it is that important don’t you think the right name would be DirectX9.1 or 9.5?
#39 Read the conclusion of own Anandtech on 04/11/04:
"If all of the cards in this review actually stick to their MSRPs, then the clear suggestion would be the $149 ATI Radeon X700. In every single game outside of Doom 3, the X700 does extremely well, putting even the GeForce 6600 to shame" I don’t think that putting the X700 out of this test was a good idea! Since 6600AGP and PCIe is at the same level, so the X700 AGP should too?
#40 Pete
See the up post! And it’s also an Anandtech conclusion!
R3MF - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
good article, cheers.i'll look forward to the vanilla 6800 benchies, as i'm building two PC's in short order, and i need the info. :)
Calin - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
Edit to #49: Radeon 9800 Pro should be at a tie with the 6600GT in Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory, as the speed difference is at best very hard to see (the biggest difference of performance is in the 6% range, just like the difference between the 5900XT and the 6600GT)Calin
danyel - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
Does anyone know if there a plan for an AGP version of the plain geforce 6600 as I don’t see it mentioned anywhere?Calin - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
Wolfenstein - Enemy territory is a tie, with the speed difference at most 6%. This is hardly a difference (however, the minimum frame rate have a bigger influence on game play than maximum frame rate)Calin
Samus - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
im ganna buy one asap, its exactly what i've been waiting for... my radeon 9600 pro chugs in doom3, and i can't even run it at my lcd's native res of 1280x1024...i've been holding off playing doom3 until a card like this came out.
jay75 - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
the ATI 9800pro beats the 6600gt when anti-aliasing(AA) is implemented in far cry. it doesn't in counter strike but the frame rate is above 75 at 1280*1024(4x AA) anyway. this is something to be noted.