6600GT vs 6800

[truflip]

ok ive got it down to these two cards.. (unless someone has a good suggestion for 200$ range.. ATI or nvidia.. )

$ 211 XFX 6800 AGP8X
256-bit core
128MB 256-bit DDR
22.4GB/Sec Memory Bandwidth
3.9 Billion Texels/Sec Fill Rate
406 Million Vertices per Second
12 Pixel Pipelines

or

$ 195 XFX 6600GT ($200 @ Sprint Computers)
256-bit core
128MB 128-bit 1200mhz DDR3
16GB/Sec Memory Bandwidth
4 Billion Texels/Sec Fill Rate
375 Million Vertices per Second
8 Pixel Pipelines

what do u think?

 

[spartanslayer]

Definately the 6800.

 

[Sharkfood]

I would say get an X800 GTO as it's $200, available in AGP and faster than both cards you have listed.

Reviews are pretty scarce, but it's basically a
256 bit core
256MB of 256 bit GDDR3
32 GB/sec bandwidth
8 gigapixels/sec fillrate (6.0 billion texels)
750 million vertices per second
12 pixel pipelines

Some benchmarks:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/241/7

A couple links with the AGP models for sale (they come in both PCI-E and AGP, so be sure to get the one proper for your system):
http://www.priceguidenetwork.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=608

http://store.yahoo.com/saveateaglestore/100131.html?ovchn=OTHER&ovcpn=Froogle&ovcrn=100131&ovtac=CMP

 

[swker98]

ill dubble the x800gto i got the gt and its a good cardso the gto is even bettwer

 

[truflip]

btw im talkin bout canadian prices... the x800gto is out of my range... and 200 is pushing my budget.. this is jus a replacement video card. not an upgrade.. not A FULL upgrade to be exact... anyway

im thinking of a 6600GT.. found one with 40$ mail in rebate.. so boils down to $177 canadian.. thts like 150 american or less...

 

[DonNagual]

The 6800 is far superior to the 6600GT.

By the way, here is an excellent comparison on ALL the AGP cards:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/index.html

 

[truflip]

hm.. nice link... however i did not see a 'far superior' numbr from the 6800 compared to the 6600GT... only in the 3D mark 2005.. but even then.. playing in the actualy game. they were very similar in numbers

btw.. does the 6800 come in PCI-E? i noticed that the 6600GT is PCIE and the 6800 is at AGP...

if i had a 6800 PCI-E.. would that perform noticibly better than an AGP version of it?

 

[DonNagual]

If you look at what happens when you crank up the game settings, the 6800 starts to walk away from the 6600GT, getting 15fps more on average:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/vga-charts-pcie-08.html. Not as big a difference as say, the 6800GT, but a noticable difference.

Both the 6600GT and the 6800 come in PCI-e x16.

But there is not a noticable performance difference between AGP and PCI-e x16. The PCI-e is a little better, but the MAIN difference is of course the newest cards (the 7800 series for example) is ONLY available in PCI-e x16.

But if your motherboard only supports AGP, then PCI-e x16 is not an option.

 

[truflip]

thing is.. i have a budget.. $200 for a videocard... the local shop priced me $211 for a AGP 6800 128MB... $194 for a 6600GT 128MB (both are from XFX)

i called and asked for the PCI-E 6800 and they said its discontinued...
right now.. (according to the XFX website) the only PCI-E 6800 is the 256MB version.. which costs $100 more than the AGP..

however.. i found an eVGA 6600GT for $165 and its PCI-E

 

[Sharkfood]

Hi truflip,

As Don mentioned, if you have AGP, you likely do NOT have PCI-Express. You can use one or the other. You'll need to be certain what your mainboard has for a video slot.

PCI-E is not the same as PCI. PCI-E is a brand new kind of expansion slot that only newer motherboards have.

More than likely, you have an AGP system unless you've upgraded your system completely in the past year. PCI-E mainboards are pretty new to the scene, albeit not really offerring anything over AGP at this stage in the game. Down the road a few years, I'm sure games will start taking advantage of PCI-E... but for now, it offers nothing.

 

[truflip]

so would u say a GeForce 6800 on AGP is jus as good as it would be on PCI-Express?

btw.. i have AGP right now.. but im upgrading on a PCI-Express mobo.. the mobo im looking at right now does not have AGP.. jus PCI-E.. however i can get an ASRock that has both AGP and PCI-E for 30$ more

 

[DonNagual]

There is no real difference, performance wise between an AGP and a pci-e x16 card. They are dead even. The pci-e x16 slots support higher bandwidths, but the limiting factor here is the performance of the cards we are talking about here.

Here is a pretty good article on AGP vs. pci-e x16. You'll be surprised to see AGP cards actually FASTER than the pci-e versions in some scenarios.
http://www.tcmagazine.info/articles.php?action=show&id=127&perpage=1&pagenum=1

But as a general rule, if you are building a new system, it wouldn't make sense to NOT get a pci-e x16 board. It is the way of the future, and AGP is a dead end road.

 

[truflip]

very well... im going for the 6600GT .. thank you..

 

[vegasgmc]

Deffinately the 6800 over the 6600. The 6800 has 256bit memory and 4 more pixel pipes so you can run higher resolutions and it wont become obsolete as fast as the 6600. Also alot off the 6800s can be soft modded,enabling all 16 pipes, turning it into a lower clocked 6800GT.