AGP 6600gt vs 6800gs

[DXsocko007]

i got a pentium 1.6
512 sd 133
would there be a big enough bennifit to get the 6800gs or not or would it just be a huge bottle neck

 

[DXsocko007]

its weird cause i dont know if i woudl get a better performance with the 6800 gs but i just wanted to know if anyone knew.

 

[MTLink]

With a system like yours, the difference from a 6600GT and 6800GS would be very small. Ever think about upgrading your whole comp?

 

[apache_lives]

6600GT will do you fine i think, the cpu is a little underpowered so the 6800gs might be a waste.

 

[parlee]

yessuh get the 6600gt, or if u want a different idea upgrade to 1gb of memory (depending on what u do, if u play games like bf2 {doubtably}) then get another 512 of memory and a 6600 vanilla, that will be just as good as a 6600gt since u have more memory things will load faster and such... id go for a 6600 and 512 memory since the 6600gt may even be a bottleneck with that processor (my friends amd2400 is the bottle neck on his 6600gt)

 

[Dekkard]

Talking from personal experiences, I put a 6800GS OC (BFG) into a 1GB athlonXP 1700+ system to replace a geforce3 Ti200. Even though I am suffering the dreaded AGP controller conflict and having to currently run through a PCI to PCI bridge generic driver (up to a 40% performance hit) I still saw my 3Dmark03 benchmark score rise from 950s to 7900s. This score is a little lower than that seen on higher spec machines (about 2000-3000 lower in most instances - this could be the driver issue as much as my CPU bottlenecking too tho) but real world performance is pretty impressive. HL2:Lost Coast runs nicely at 10x7 with full eye candy and gives an average 53fps. A friend of mine has a 6600 256MB on an XP2200+ and it gives slightly lower benchmark scores and he maybe has to take some games down a few notches to maintain playable frame rates.
So, my message is - if you have the money go with the 6800GS (please note I got mine for $190 on day of release and I don't think the $230 now being charged is worthwhile for the BFG). I have noticed some great deals on the 6600 line though since then so a lot depends on if you want a 6 month or 1 year fix....I went with the 1 year fix and so opted for the higher end model. Whatever you choose, shop around some as there is a big difference in pricing between etailers right now on some models.

 

[parlee]

i dont believe u get 53fps on lost coast at max settings, not with that setup.. maybe 53 peak while looking at the ground or a wall... i have a 3700+ x700pro and 1gb memory (yea the video card is slow but in reviews its barely slower than urs) and my processor is 2-3 times faster and i only manage 65fps in lost coast...

 

[Dekkard]

Well sorry but I don't have any reason to lie. Besides, I didn't say at max settings - I said at 10x7. You'll likely find your X700Pro can outperform my 6800GS in most games with the difference in CPU but with the HDR capability differences on Lost Coast you'll see more discrepancies than elsewhere. As for suggesting that your X700pro is only slightly slower, I'd have to disagree with that and I'm sure most other readers would too.....even in my heavily bottlenecked system the difference would (if they made an AGP version) be dramatic - 128bit, 128MB RAM, slower clock and core, only 8 pipes. I'd actually be quite pleased if you're getting 65fps on Lost Coast with that card....nice to see that a decent CPU really can make a difference.

 

[parlee]

Even though I am suffering the dreaded AGP controller conflict and having to currently run through a PCI to PCI bridge generic driver (up to a 40% performance hit) I still saw my 3Dmark03 benchmark score rise from 950s to 7900s. This score is a little lower than that seen on higher spec machines (about 2000-3000 lower in most instances - this could be the driver issue as much as my CPU bottlenecking too tho) but real world performance is pretty impressive. HL2:Lost Coast runs nicely at 10x7 with full eye candy and gives an average 53fps.

u said full eye candy, i was assuming that was hdr with max settings... even though hl2 lost coast isnt very demanding on the processor theres no way a 1700+ could keep up with the speed of a 6800gs, causing huge bottlenecks, even without hdr enabled... with hdr on i get 42 fps constant never goes lower never goes higher... and its more like 90+ without hdr (all these are with 0 AA 0 AF) im not trying to argue im just saying that i doubt ur 1700 could be powerful enough to get 53fps avergage... and yes i know the x700 pro is a piece but i was comparing it to a 6600gt not a 6800gs... 6800gs offers much better performance but i couldnt order online and 6800gs in stores was close to 300, the x700pro was 129, i figure i got a steal since its 169 on newegg...

 

[bob5568]

Dekkard,

Even though I am suffering the dreaded AGP controller conflict and having to currently run through a PCI to PCI bridge generic driver (up to a 40% performance hit) I s

Would you please introduce me to this issue. I just installed a 6800gs, unmasked the 13 thru 16th pipe, and it appears to be working fine. But I'm not running formal benchmarks, so I'm not able to say definitively that the device is working at full capacity.

So, I'm enjoying reading these threads, and this issue is new to me.

Bob

3800+ x2 AMD 64
2x512 corsair ram
6800gs

 

[Dekkard]

yes i know the x700 pro is a piece but i was comparing it to a 6600gt not a 6800gs... 6800gs offers much better performance but i couldnt order online and 6800gs in stores was close to 300, the x700pro was 129, i figure i got a steal since its 169 on newegg...

Well, we beg to differ but it appears we are at least both satisfied with performance I managed to get my BFG 6800GS OC for $190 on the day of release from NewEgg......at that price I am equally happy with it as a steal - especially with the ability to OC & unlock. As for the price jump since then, well I wouldn't have paid over $200 for this or any AGP card...especially to run on my system. To those looking to buy a 6800GS now, do your homework.
Bob5568, if your card is working and you haven't altered the drivers I mentioned, don't mess with it!!!!!!!! I was referring to an issue where 80+ forceware drivers will not install due to a conflict with AMD 76x chipsets on older AGP mobos. Your PC clearly does not have this issue as the symptom is a failure to boot (XP startup screen goes black with dots in top left corner).

 

[bob5568]

Dekkard...thanks!

B

 

[Dekkard]

No probs.
How is the 6800GS performance on your system?
I'm deliberating getting the ASRock dualsataII 939 mobo to make the move to 64bit but keep my AGP for the time being.

 

[bob5568]

I'm deliberating getting the ASRock dualsataII 939 mobo to make the move to 64bit but keep my AGP for the time being.

Ya, I considered that for a time also. I had a radeon 9800pro, and a 32bit system, and wanted to upgrade. At that time, playing games with nice eye candy wasn't (and really still isn't) my priority, and so I decided to keep the agp card.

Right before I bought the mobo, I read somewhere that the asrock939dual is laid out badly making the cabling stretch to reach the ide devices. As the price was so low for basic 939 socket agp cards, I went ahead and bought a low cost gigabyte mobo with only agp, assuming the move to pcie would just mean a mobo as well as vid card.

This was my thinking before I rebuilt my box.

Now that my rebuild is working away (the build went perfectly), I've started reading these articles about higher end agp vid cards...ARRGGG...It made me want one! Just a toy, you know, not important....no way to justify it....but then...heck.

Finding out about the agp version of the 6800gs being unlockable kind of intrigued me.

Now, why didn't I change the mobo again and buy pcie? I considered it...but the truth is I didn't want to re-install windows again. Its just a bit more work than I wanted to do, and with the pace of things, I know I'll do a new mobo again in a year anyway. Why not wait til then.

Having said all that, while I was building this version of my computer I realized that my cabling to IDE devices, in my mid-tower, are long enough to go nearly anywhere....LOL. Meaning, buying the asrock would likely have not been a problem.

Good thing I look at this as fun, and not terribly important!

Best,
Bob


PS..performance...I know you guys all discuss benchmarks. I have quake4, doom3, and farcry installed, and they all play nicely with much more eyecandy turned on than before. I did find in FarCRY that turning on the highest settings, which was way cool...showed individual fronds of the ferns....forced the textures to load too slowly, so I had to back off on the quality one notch. Also flightsim 2004 can show just about all the display options turned on without stutters, so that's good.

I don't have the benchmark softwares to quote numbers. What's a good one? might be interesting to run it and see.