• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

finally, Nvidia may have my vote...

U

UrbN

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 6, 2004
Messages
179
I've been busting my damn brain left and right trying to find the right video card for my new system. I'm in the last steps of choosing a GeForce 6600 GT, but i have 3 more questions. Does the card come in 256mb form, and how much faster is AGP compared to PCI-E? Does my motherboard support PCI-E, when does the AGP version of the 6600gt come out, are there any good ideas on how much the card in AGP will be?
 
1. what is your motherboard.
2. pci-e and agp cards are the same speed.
3. i wouldn't bother getting a 256mb card unless it was the 6800* because a 6600 wouldn't handle 1600 res anyhow, so 256 mb will probably no be used
 
Yea, no use getting 256MB on a 6600GT really.
 
Or get the vanilla 6800 for close to the same price as the 6600. It is the better performer of the two. 6800GT powns both but costs quite a bit more.
 
UrbN said:
I've been busting my damn brain left and right trying to find the right video card for my new system. I'm in the last steps of choosing a GeForce 6600 GT, but i have 3 more questions. Does the card come in 256mb form, and how much faster is AGP compared to PCI-E? Does my motherboard support PCI-E, when does the AGP version of the 6600gt come out, are there any good ideas on how much the card in AGP will be?
Click to expand...

It seems to me you have the misconception that PCI-E is slower or older than AGP, which is not correct. PCI-Express is the new standard that replaces AGP and standard PCI and is currently only available on Intel 915/925 chipset motherboards, but will be available soon on nForce4 chipset-based motherboards for AMD processors.

Also, PCI-E and AGP are not the same speed. For an good explanation of PCI-E technology read THIS.

The 6600 series is a PCI-Express card, it is designed for the new technology and I see no reason in the future for them to release the card on an outdated AGP bus technology since new motherboards are moving to PCI-Express.

If you are looking for a good AGP video card in the price range of the 6600GT, I suggest you look at the ATI 9800 series.
 
obs said:
Yea, no use getting 256MB on a 6600GT really.
Click to expand...
yes there is :mad: ;)

Unlike the last generation of crippled mid range cards (RV3x0 and 4 pipeline versions of NV3x chips), the NV43 with 8 pipelines and 500MHz core has enough muscle to run high resolution with FSAA, and 128MB is a limiting factor sometimes. 256MB doesn't help in all cases of course, but it does come in handy for several newer games. The 128-bit memory bus is also a problem but not as much as 128MB when memory is limited due to massive texture usage.

I'll probably upgrade to the NV41 256MB eventually.
 
Intel Pentium 4 3.0ghz HT
Asus P4P800S-X
512mb pc3200 RAM
40GB HD ( upgrading to 120gb at the most in the future )
Fortron 500w PSU

That is my current system, i had read on another post that the ATI cards suck out a lot of wattage on a psu. I know i did evil and went and looked at reviews on another website. They were showing that the 6600gt kept up with the 6800, and was off by a few FPS. I was new to the whole pci-e concept and wasn't sure how fast it ran. I dont have a video card for the new system i just built, wanted to hurry up and put something in to see how it runs. I have a TNT2 that i have laying around, i didn't wanna put it in, but really didn't wait to shop for a new video card. I would like to get my hands on the agp series of the 6600gt. The 6800 isn't too bad of a price, wasn't sure how much i had wanted to spend right now.
 
UrbN said:
Intel Pentium 4 3.0ghz HT
Asus P4P800S-X
512mb pc3200 RAM
40GB HD ( upgrading to 120gb at the most in the future )
Fortron 500w PSU

That is my current system, i had read on another post that the ATI cards suck out a lot of wattage on a psu. I know i did evil and went and looked at reviews on another website. They were showing that the 6600gt kept up with the 6800, and was off by a few FPS. I was new to the whole pci-e concept and wasn't sure how fast it ran. I dont have a video card for the new system i just built, wanted to hurry up and put something in to see how it runs. I have a TNT2 that i have laying around, i didn't wanna put it in, but really didn't wait to shop for a new video card. I would like to get my hands on the agp series of the 6600gt. The 6800 isn't too bad of a price, wasn't sure how much i had wanted to spend right now.
Click to expand...

The 6600GT is not available in AGP yet, and it might be another month or 2 before it is.

ATI and NV high end cards both suck up quite a bit of juice, but a 500W PSU should handle any of the cards.

My vote would be for a 6800 vanilla, @ $250 (on sale) to about $280 on most sites... its the best bang for buck around.

The 6600 or 6800 vanilla are really not quite powerful enough to use the 256MB of ram. By the time you're in a situation where you would need that much ram, your framerates are usually below a playable rate anyway. Granted it will improve performance... but its only in situations where it improves it from 20fps to 28fps.... both unplayable in my book.

PS. its ok to use the system with that TNT2, you can use the same drivers (most recent off Nvidia.com) and when you swap the cards.... bam you're back up & running no driver changes. = unified driver architecture :)
 
Well with the 6800 you always have the chance of softmodding in the extra pipes.
 
Stellar said:
The 6600 series is a PCI-Express card, it is designed for the new technology and I see no reason in the future for them to release the card on an outdated AGP bus technology since new motherboards are moving to PCI-Express.
Click to expand...

I would tend to disagree with that. Yes, things are heading into PCI-e, but the 6600 series of cards are in that target range where most people are willing to buy, and is one of their biggest market segments. There is far too much of an AGP motherboard install base for them to exclude such a large portion of one of their most profitable segments.

While the hard core enthusiest that spends $400-500 on video card may be willing to upgrade their mobo, and possibly CPU and memory for the latest technology, those that want to spend <=$199 for a video card tend to not be willing to do that. I suspect most of the video cards from ATi and nVidia will be offered in both PCI-e and AGP for the next little while, and then you will slowly see fewer models in AGP format.
 
I dont think my mobo has pci-e slot on it. It didn't come with a manual when i got it off pricewatch. It just shows on the website that it has AGP8x, but not sure about the pcie slot. I really dont want to have to wait for the 6600gt to come in agp, but wouldn't mind getting the vanilla 6800 if i can find the right price you know. If you guys wanna help me out and see if i do have pci-e, heres the website for it.

http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4p800s-x/overview.htm#
 
the 6000gt and 6800nu are powerful enough to use the 256mb ram.. so u guys are saying that the 9800xt is not powerful enough to use 256mb ram? since both the 6600gt and 6800nu dust the 9800xt in most things.. and they have 128mb less ram.. but anyways, i would get the 6800nu for $249 over hte 6600gt for $200 anyday... just my opinion..
 
i would say get a 6800 vanilla and try to match the 512 with another stick, 1gb is a BIG improvement over 512mb of ram nowadays. my old "turbolink"(who the hell is that? :confused: ) 420w psu handled my 6800gt alright, it occasionally froze thje hard drive or the video card due to shitty voltages, but my antec TRUE480w is much better, so you should be fine with a fortron

that system will last you awhile yet and until PCI-e matures and is starting to show great improvements, i dont see why you should need to invest in it
 
For at least a year all the top cards were made in both AGP and PCI when the transition from PCI to AGP Was made.

So I would bet that for at least another calander year most cards will be available in both bus types.
 
so i'm thinking since my mobo doesn't support pci-e, and since i'm not patient enough. I should just go with the 6800nu, or the 6800 vanilla if i dont want to wait for the 6600GT agp. Would it really be worth waiting for the AGP 6600gt, or no?
 
no go for the 6800nu.. also...

The 6600gt is as fast as a 9800 pro and we all know that a 9800 pro can utilize the extra 128 megs of ram, a 256 meg 6600gt would be fine if that 's what you want.

~Adam
 
I was just in the market for a card that would run really well with games. I dont plan on OCing the card, or my system. I'm in the market of buying doom 3, farcry, city of heros, CS:S. I'm trying to keep my wallet from getting a dent knocked into it by a video card, for now anyways. The gf would cut off my genitals if i didn't have enough to spend on her for x-mas :) So here are my options, anyone wanna help out with the pros and cons.

6800gt 256
6800nu
6800 vanilla
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top