Head to Head: ATI Radeon X700 XT vs. NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT

As far as PCI Express platforms go, the Radeon X700 XT and the GeForce 6600GT are about as evenly matched as you can get in terms of price and performance and thankfully they are both readily available today. Let's see how they perform head to head under Half Life 2:

In our first demo, the two basically tie - we aren't considering performance differences of ~3% or less to be anything significant.

Half Life 2 AT_canals_08.dem
 
ATI Radeon X700 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Performance Advantage
1024 x 768
116.4
113.5
2.6%
1280 x 1024
78.7
78.1
0.8%
1600 x 1200
55.9
57.7
3.1%
1024 x 768 - 4X AA
75.3
72.7
3.6%
Winner
-
-
Tie

Our second demo shows the X700 XT pulling ahead and definitely taking the lead when AA is enabled.

Half Life 2 AT_coast_05.dem
 
ATI Radeon X700 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Performance Advantage
1024 x 768
133.5
129.6
3.0%
1280 x 1024
112.3
107.9
4.1%
1600 x 1200
81.9
78.5
4.3%
1024 x 768 - 4X AA
115.8
107.2
8.0%
Winner
-
-
X700 XT

We have a tie once again in our third demo:

Half Life 2 AT_coast_12.dem
 
ATI Radeon X700 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Performance Advantage
1024 x 768
115.7
113.6
1.8%
1280 x 1024
88
88.2
0.2%
1600 x 1200
63
64.4
2.2%
1024 x 768 - 4X AA
87.5
87.1
0.5%
Winner
-
-
Tie

Our fourth demo shows the X700 XT pulling far ahead with AA enabled, but otherwise the two perform identically:

Half Life 2 AT_prison_05.dem
 
ATI Radeon X700 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Performance Advantage
1024 x 768
119
116.1
2.5%
1280 x 1024
79.4
77.2
2.8%
1600 x 1200
55.5
55.7
0.4%
1024 x 768 - 4X AA
85.1
74.6
14.1%
Winner
-
-
X700 XT

In our final demothe X700 XT manages to maintain the greatest performance advantage, even at 1600 x 1200 without AA the X700 XT is over 10% faster than the 6600GT.

Half Life 2 AT_c17_12.dem
 
ATI Radeon X700 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Performance Advantage
1024 x 768
87.3
82.9
5.3%
1280 x 1024
82.2
76.4
7.6%
1600 x 1200
69.2
61.6
12.3%
1024 x 768 - 4X AA
77.4
70
10.6%
Winner
-
-
X700 XT

We averaged all of the X700 XT's wins together to make up the table below. From the looks of it, the X700 XT is significantly faster when AA is enabled, but is otherwise a relative equal to the 6600GT. What is important to note here is that the sweet spot for image quality and performance on these two cards appears to be at 1280 x 1024, where they are both virtually equal in performance.

Summary
 
Average Performance Advantage (X700 XT over 6600GT)
1024 x 768
3.0%
1280 x 1024
3.1%
1600 x 1200
4.5%
1024 x 768 - 4X AA
7.3%
Head to Head: ATI Radeon X800 Pro vs. NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT Head to Head: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 vs. NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
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  • zhangping0233 - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link

    Try xecconlight.com and Flashlightbox.com, you will find the best flashlight for the world. Shipping to all the world.
  • nthexwn - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link

    I've also noticed that having the steam client running in the background can place quite a load on your entire system! After downloading all the content to cut down on network/disk/buffering wierdness I did some tests benchmarking UT2004 with the ons_dria demo from nvnews and noticed that my fps drops up to 10 when steam is running in the background!

    Might it be possible to compare performance between the retail version of Half-life 2 and the steamed version available for internet purchase to see if there's any sort of performance difference? Or does the retail version just run through an offline steam client anyway? (I bought over web)
  • cryptonomicon - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link

    if your game crashes when switching to fullscreen it is because you have refresh overrides in place.

    add:
    -width X -refresh Y

    to your command line, for example
    -width 1024 -refresh 100

    it fixxed all my video problems.
  • meatless - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link

    #10 - That's a pretty stupid thing to say. Kyle used the cards that his readers were most likely to buy; I know I wouldn't waste my money on a non-BFG nVidia 68xx card, and I know most other gamers wouldn't either. It's a part of [H]'s focus on doing real-world-style benches instead of OMG LETZ C IF NV RULZ ATI 2DAY IN HL2!!111111

    With all that said, it's great to see stiff competition in the video card arena, finally--should make for exciting product lines on the next go-round.
  • Jedi2155 - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link

    #64
    there is a hidden HL2 MP in the game....however its not yet complete....

    quote

    11/17/2004 22:58 PST | Half-Life 2 | by MarmaladeMan
    HL2 World is reporting that they've found a working Half-Life 2 multiplayer built in to standard retail HL2. Here's the story, including how to do it:
    Here's how:
    net_start
    sv_lan 0
    deathmatch 1
    maxplayers (whatever you want)
    map (mapname)
    restart
    It will add you to the master server and it works. I know, it looks like the leak, but I assure you this is the retail HL2.
    They have a screenshot, as well as a test map for you to check out if interested. Head on over to HL2 World for the full story.

    http://www.hl2world.com/

    /quote
  • jonmcc33 - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link

    Get back to Half-Life 2? Why? There's no point other than the fact it's a pretty single player game. If I wanted single player than I would have raved about Max Payne 2, which I didn't. Why Valve didn't think to make a Half-Life 2 MP side is beyond me. That's where the market is these days. Single player games, you play them once and you are done. Multiplayer is always changing. I don't want to wait for any stupid MP mod either. Curse you, Valve, for making us wait a year longer and then only giving us one piece of the cake!
  • TrungRacingDev - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link

    you do realize that the fx5900 is default directx 8.1 right? if u think its beautiful now...try a directx 9.0 card =)
  • Motley - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link

    I'm glad I didn't read this article before actually playing HL2.

    My system:
    P4 3.4GHz, 2GB Ram
    5900 Ultra video card
    ASUS P4P800 Motherboard

    I was playing HL2 at 1280x1024 with 6xAA, and 16xAnitropic Filtering, with everything else turned on to maximum. Besides a half-second stutter just after loading a new level, the game played GREAT, looked GREAT.

    Then again, maybe I'm not expecting the world, but, I can say that I was pleased, and maybe the x800 or 6800 can turn out better numbers, HOWEVER, at no time did I feel that I needed (or even wanted in the slightest) faster frame rates, or smoother gameplay. It just owned from the beginning to the end.
  • southernpac - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link

    Anand, In light of the significant ATI X800XT DX9 (HL2) performance over the nVIDIA 6800 Ultra, would you today favor the X800XT PE graphic card in combination with the MSI K8N Neo2 motherboard? In your last High-End Buyers Guide (30 August) you recommended the nVIDIA 6800 Ultra be used with the MSI K8N Neo2 because Wesley thought that motherboard performed "a bit better" with a nVIDIA card. What would your recommendation be today? Can we anticipate another High-End Buyers Guide this month(its been 3 months)? Bill
  • blckgrffn - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link

    I know, I know, but if gf2 can play at 800*600 MQ than maybe they can handle 1024*768...that would mean that a bunch of my friends wouldn't have to upgrade from their $60 cards, and they would be overjoyed :)

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