NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT: Bringing NV4x to the Masses
by Derek Wilson on September 7, 2004 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
High-Tech Mid-Range
The 6600 series of GPUs (NV43) are based on the NV40 core architecture. The entire feature set from the 6800 line is carried over with only a few exceptions. First, the memory bandwidth of the card is cut from 256 down to 128. This should have a fairly large impact on AA/AF performance and other very graphics memory intensive operations. The second adjustment NVIDIA includes in NV43 is a reduction in the maximum number of supported pixel pipelines. 6600 series cards have 8 pixel pipelines. This is half the max of the NV40 core.Of course, we can also look at NV43 as the same number of pipelines as a 9800XT, and twice the pipelines in a 5950 Ultra. This, and the 500 core and 500 memory clock speeds, make the 6600 GT a very formidable contender on paper. For anyone interested, AnandTech has recently published an article detailing the theoretical maximums (among other things) of just about every ATI and NVIDIA card since Radeon and GeForce were first introduced. Higher theoretical fill rates and processing power are always nice things to see, but can the card deliver?
The 6600 GT also features one of the most exciting aspects of the NV4x series of GPUs: SLI. We've covered NVIDIA's take on SLI before, and we are happy to see it making its way down the line of NV GPUs. Obviously, one would not get the same power from 2x $200 cards than from 2x $500 cards, but dropping the price on an SLI capable card is really opening the door to those who would like to see some sort of upgradeability maintained in today's ever changing scene.
We haven't yet gotten our hands on a regular 6600, but traditionally, the $200 parts have been the sweet spot for price/performance ratios. That's not to say that the 6600 won't be a good deal, but NVIDIA will have to be careful to push clock speeds that don't offer a (much?) lower value. We would have dropped the clock on our 6600 GT to match 6600 speeds, but they use different memory types. We'll have to wait until we can get our hands on one of those to see some performance numbers.
It is worth mentioning that neither the 6600 nor the 6600 GT require an external power source. That isn't to say that they are less power hungry than an AGP card that requires external power, but that the PCI Express slot supplies enough voltage to the card that it doesn't need any more juice. PCI Express is designed to be more robust in that area than AGP.
There's not much else to say other than to reiterate that the 6600 series sport the same feature set (barring the exceptions mentioned) as the original NV40 GPUs. So, without further ado, we present the benchmarks.
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Saist - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
ksherman : overclock a GF2 MX? I think you have that confused with a GF4-4200. I've never been able to successfully OC a GF2 MX.mcveigh : Nvidia does have intentions to add DVI->Component adapter support into Forceware. Good luck on it being stable though.
Jalf: If you read the beginning of the article, you'll note that Anandtech originally was going to compare the 6600GT to the ATi Radeon X600 series card because there was no "underpowered" X800-PE to compete with the 6600GT. All of those only 2 card charts were showing the PCIe 6600GT vs. the nearest (under-pricepoint) Radeon PCIe product.
Questar : Read my earlier note and stop trolling please. It's rather obvious why the charts suddenly changed if you had bothered to read the words and not the pretty pictures. Most of the article was comparing PCIe cards to AGP cards. Please, think before you troll.
Illissius : It's not really that odd. The GF6 tech is present in full, so the 6600GT does benifit from the better memory controller and other optimizations. However, as we notice, once we start enable filtering, the card is easily decimated by the competition. I think I'll stick with my 9800 Pro's for now.
mickyb : if memory serves correctly, the stock cooling fan was ~50 db back in May. It was still a little obnoxious for a fan, but nowhere near as bad as it's older brethren. Looking at the card Anandtech appeared to have, I'd guess the noise range was probably between 40-50 db. Doesn't look like Nvidia changed much.
DeathByDuke - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
argh, keep charts consistent!also, would make more sense to directly compare to the 9800 XT/Pro, as they are in same price bracket, unlike X600/9600. meh. same applies to all the other sites. I dont give a damn if 9800 isnt on PCI-Express, tests have shown, like AGP 8x vs AGP 4x, theres no damn difference outside margins of error. so.... AGP 6600 should perform the same. At least we'd know then whether this £150 9800 Pro is worth it against a £150-£200 6600. I'm off to pray the X700 reviews dont pit it against a Geforce PCX 5300, Cos thats precisely what comparing a 6600 to a 9600/X600 is.
ksherman - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
yeah i see it now... not sure how i missed that :D. It certainly sounds like a kickn' card! One thing i was disappointed about in the article was that you didnt try and overclock the card... That was one of the things that made the GForce2 MX a great buy. Im not sure if that is something that still carries into the current gen cards, but i would be interesting to see how well it ocsmcveigh - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
read the article.inshort: not yet but they are exprcted to.
ksherman - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
do they make a non-PCIe version? I really dont want to spend the money to convert to Intelmcveigh - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
anyone know if it can take a dvi->component adapter?I heard a rumor the 6600 series would be able to do this like radeon's can.
FuryVII - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
Yea, "nobody 'looses'".mickyb - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
How loud is this card? I need something quiter than I have. I built a SFF system for my stereo rack and it looks like this card may be the ticket.Jalf - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
Yeah, I wondered about that too. Why did some of the charts only show two cards? I wouldn't call it a piece of shit article, and the card does look like really great value, but I did wonder about that. :)Still, I'd call it a good article, and a good card.
Questar - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - link
OMFG I can't beleive what has happened to this place.Can we please at least have the charts consistant from one page to another? Let's see on this page I'll make a chart with a 6800U and an X600, then on this page I'll throw in 10 other cards, and on the next page I'll take two out!
What a piece of shit article.