GeForce 6600 Architecture
The architecture of the GeForce 6600 graphics processor - codenamed "NV43" - is based on the NV40/45 graphics processor introduced last year, which is used on GeForce 6800 cards. On paper, NVIDIA's GeForce 6 card series offers the most modern 3D architecture currently on the market, with full DirectX 9.0c or Shader Model 3.0 support.
The structure of NVIDIA's NV43 graphics processor (GeForce 6600).
To bring the production costs of the graphics processor down to the midrange level, NVIDIA trimmed the NV43 GPU down in a few areas. The NV43 is equipped with only 8 pixel pipelines, instead of the 16 or 12 of the NV40/45. The number of vertex shader units was also reduced from 6 to 3, and the memory interface was cut from 256 bits to 128 bits in width. These measures save on transistors, and reduce the production costs of the circuit boards.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | ATI Radeon X700 Pro | NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT | NVIDIA GeForce 6600 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Codename | RV410 | NV43 | NV43 |
| Chip Technology | 256 bit | 256 bit | 256 bit |
| Process | 0.11 Micron | 0.11 Micron | 0.11 Micron |
| Transistors | 120 Million | 143 Million | 143 Million |
| Memory Bus | 128 bit GDDR3 | 128 bit GDDR3 | 128 bit GDDR |
| Memory Bandwidth | 13.8 GB/s | 16.0 GB/s | 11.2 GB/s |
| Pixel Fillrate | 1700M Pixel/s | 2000M Pixel/s | 1200M Pixel/s |
| Max FSAA Mode | 6x | 4x / 4xMS+2xSS | 4x / 4xMS+2xSS |
| Triangle Transform Rate | 637.5 M Triangles/s | 375M Vertices/sec | 225M Vertices/sec |
| Bus | x16 PEG, AGP (soon) | x16 PEG, AGP | x16 PEG, AGP |
| Memory | 128/256 MB | 128/256 MB | 128/256 MB |
| GPU Clock | 425 MHz | 500 MHz | 300 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 430 MHz (860 DDR) | 500 MHz (1000 DDR) | 350 MHz (700 DDR) |
| Vertex Shader | 6 | 3 Units | 3 Units |
| Pixel Pipelines | 8x1 | 8x1 / 16x0 | 8x1 / 16x0 |
| Texture Units Per Pipe | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Vertex S. Version | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Pixel S. Version | 2.0 Extended | 3 | 3 |
| DirectX Generation | 9 | 9.0c | 9.0c |
| FSAA Modi | MultiSampling | MultiSamplingSuperSampling Mixed Mode | MultiSamplingSuperSampling Mixed Mode |
| Memory Optmizations | Hyper Z HD | LMA III OptimizedColor Compression | LMA III OptimizedColor Compression |
| Optmizations | SmartShader HDSmoothVision HD | IntelliSample 3.0 | IntelliSample 3.0 |
| Display Outputs | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Chip Internal Ramdacs | 2 x 400 MHz | 2 x 400 MHz | 2 x 400 MHz |
| Chip External Ramdacs | - | - | - |
| Bits per Color Channel | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Special | TV Encoder On-Chip;VideoShader HD;3Dc Compression;Temporal AA;Adaptive Filtering;F-Buffer | Video Processor and TV Encoder On-Chip;Extended Progammability;Adaptive Filtering, True Trilinear Filtering, UltraShadow | Video Processor and TV Encoder On-Chip;Extended ProgammabilityAdaptive Filtering, True Trilinear Filtering, UltraShadow |
