The Test

AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 EL Dual Channel DIMMs 2-2-2-10
MSI K8N Neo2 nForce3 Motherboard
ATI Catalyst 4.11 Drivers
NVIDIA ForceWare 66.93 Drivers

Doom 3 Performance

Since even before its release Doom 3 has clearly been an NVIDIA selling point. It is built around OpenGL, and preliminary benchmarks showed NVIDIA hardware running Doom 3 faster than ATI a year before the game's release. The end product doesn't seem to have deviated from the initial track, and surely NVIDIA couldn't be happier. We see here that the 6600GT is outperforming ATI's 12 pipe x800 Pro part with the the 6800 GT setting the bar on performance very high.

Doom 3

Under Doom 3 the 6600GT is a very powerful midrange card. Our resolution scaling graph shows a card with a profile that exceeds that of the x800 Pro. All of the previous generation cards fall a good distance behind the top three contenders in this test.


When 4x AA is enabled under Doom 3, the 6600GT dips under the x800 Pro in resolution scaleing. The 6600GT is still a midrange card, and 4xAA at high resolutions is going to be easier to handle on the higher end x800. The 6600GT puts in a very good showing overall.


Head to Head: NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT vs. NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Counterstrike: Source Visual Stress Test
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  • Slaimus - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    What is missing is an AGP versus PCIE comparison, so the impact of the bridging can be seen.
  • bob661 - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    Newegg has one for $235.
    http://tinyurl.com/6cjej
  • pio!pio! - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    #8: What do you mean unlock the stuff? Can you flash the 6800GT BIOS onto the 6800 regular or something?
  • Da3dalus - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    NVidia rocks again 8D
  • Staples - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    Hell yeah.

    I was hoping this card would hit before Christmas. My brother wants a 9800P for Christmas but after seeing the PCI-E vesion as a comprable price, it would pain me to buy a 9800P for the same price.
  • Staples - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

  • Bonesdad - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    Will the retail price here match the street price we see in the real world? Often the MSRP is appreciably higher than street price. Have to wait to see...if it is $175-$200 street price, then the message is clear
  • FinalFantasy - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    Awesome card...I might pick one up for my dad's rig.
  • CU - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    Anand you must be the only one in the world that can find 6800GT/U and x800Pro/XT, and now a 6600GT AGP the day it is out, but don't have a 6800nu to test with. I wish I had that problem.

    P.S. I don't mean this in a bad way or anything. I just thought it was funny.
  • mldeveloper - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link

    will we see a pci express 6600gt vs. agp 6600gt to confirm if the bridge chip actually affects performance

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