Upgrading: GeForce 6600GT or 6800?

[chillyman]

Hi.

I'm having this terrible anxiety, because I don't know which card to buy for my crappy PC (see: bottom) in order to enjoy some of today's newer game titles. The thing is that for the past three months or so I've been checking out the 6600GT against the 6800 series and so far my research has been nothing but inconclusive.

Recently I noticed that nVIDIA made a small addition to it's GeForce 6 product line (6800XT) which supposedly packs the same amount of power as the 6600GT. Now, I'm aware that the 256-bit memory bus of the 6800 series will kick the GT's ass by a mile on some aspects but with this new version they seemed to have cut down on the pipelines, hence I don't think that it's easy to tell which one is the better choice anymore.

I should remind you that we are talking about equal amounts of memory - 128MB DDR/GDDR3 (XT vs. GT) - so the real question is where do they differ performance wise? What I know about the 6800XT is that it's supposed to fill in the small gap between 6800LE and 6800. Judging by the price, it's not that far from a 6600GT. These cards cost about the same (the 6800XT cost roughly 15-20£ more than the LE version).

So I'm kinda stuck between the middle of two roads, not really getting anywhere. From what I've been able to figure out: The 6600GT clocks higher than the 6800XT (500/900Mhz vs. 325/350Mhz) but nevertheless, it only runs on a 128-bit interface! Which one should I get???

I'm so lost... really hope anyone here can give me a helping hand.
Cheers.


----
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1800+
RAM: 512 DDR-PC2100/266
GPU: GeForce2 MX400/64MB (AGP-4X on mobo!!)
PSU: 300W or 350W (can't remember)

 

[PluggedN]

Go with the 6800GS.....It is cheaper than the GT and just as quick.

 

[cleeve]

Yep. 6800GS is the new wundercard.

 

[chillyman]

Go with the 6800GS.....It is cheaper than the GT and just as quick.

You must be mistaken. The 6800GS costs almost twice as much as the 6600GT where I'm at right now. Are you sure you aren't thinking of the 6800GT? If so: read the topic title again, ok? Thanks

 

[Pain]

The 6800GS is not currently in AGP flavor, and probably won't ever be.

If the question is between a 6800 or a 6600GT, the 6800 bests it slightly by 0-20%, but it cost more than a 6600GT, so you decide if 0-20% is worth the price (check reviews for test results)

 

[HardWareBoss]

Go with the 6800GS.....It is cheaper than the GT and just as quick.

You must be mistaken. The 6800GS costs almost twice as much as the 6600GT where I'm at right now. Are you sure you aren't thinking of the 6800GT? If so: read the topic title again, ok? Thanks Buy the 6800. :mrgreen:

 

[chillyman]

If the question is between a 6800 or a 6600GT, the 6800 bests it slightly by 0-20%, but it cost more than a 6600GT, so you decide if 0-20% is worth the price (check reviews for test results)

From my point of view, the 6000XT goes for about the same price as the 6600GT. So the question is really if the +20% potential could be worth it. The 6800 series is after all, a bit better architectured but on the other hand, they've done a tremendous job speeding up the 6600GT's! So, which is the better choice for me (and moreover; what's would be the best for my crappy system)

Aargh, I will never be able to make up my mind. :roll:

 

[Pain]

I thought the original question (topic) was 6600gt vs. 6800?

However. I must have gotten my numbers crossed, because I just looked back at this review and the 6600gt is better than vanilla 6800, using D3 as the benchmark. So, I was mistaken.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050524/index.html

ADDED: Actually, I wasn't mistaken, I was just looking at 2 different reviews, the one above is PCI-e, and the one I was refering to originally was the AGP. I personally have AGP machines, so that's what I was looking at. Here is the AGP review that supports my original comments.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/index.html

 

[Rugger]

The 6800 is the better card and it's possible to OC it to 6800GT speeds with Rivatuner - usually without much effort. However, the rest of your system is going to be the bottleneck. The 6600GT is probably all that you need for that rig.

 

[chillyman]

double post.

 

[chillyman]

Actually, I wasn't mistaken, I was just looking at 2 different reviews, the one above is PCI-e, and the one I was refering to originally was the AGP. I personally have AGP machines, so that's what I was looking at.

Very nice, exactly the type of info I needed although it lacks the benchmark on the 6800XT but still, nice. One conclusion I can draw by looking at the graphs is that the 6800 clearly offers an advantage when enabling advanced rendering features such as AA/AF. I also think the 6600 lacks enough bandwith to get along with my low-end system as it would use more of GPU power, mainly because of the 128bit bus although that is just a hunch and not an educated opinion from my part. :roll:

The 6800 is the better card and it's possible to OC it to 6800GT speeds with Rivatuner - usually without much effort. However, the rest of your system is going to be the bottleneck. The 6600GT is probably all that you need for that rig.

Rugger; guess I suspected that to be the case with my current setup. However, can you point me to any actual actual facts on the matter? I'm wondering because I stumbled upon an article stating that there wasn't much of a difference between the 4X/8X AGP port speed (at least when speaking of mid-end cards). Again I've also heard somewhere that exceeding the game-manufacters optimal hardware recommendation won't add anything to the performance... at least regarding CPU speed. Any comments on the latter?

I'm very curious to see how this turns out as I'm getting pretty anxious to buy that card sometime soon.

 

[russell]

Read this

 

[chillyman]

Read this

What exactly am I looking for?

The article is about ATI cards... This thread concerns Geforce products

 

[Rugger]

I think his point was that the X800 is also a great option. :/