GeForce 6600GT or Radeon 9800 Pro

im getting a new video card and i dont know which of these to choose. both are same price at compusa, which 1 is better?

-GeForce 6600GT-
Platform: PC
Type of Video Card: 2D/3D Video w/TV Support
Slot Type: PCI Express x16
Chipset Brand: NVIDIA
Chipset: GeForce 6600
Core Clock Speed: 500 MHz
Installed Video Memory: 128 MB
Memory Technology: DDR3
Memory Speed: 1 GHz
RAMDAC Speed: dual 400 MHz
Max Resolution: 2048 x 1536
Refresh Rate at Max Resolution: 85 Hz
Flat Panel Max Resolution: 1900 x 1200
Video Standards: HDTV

-Radeon 9800 Pro-
Platform: PC
Type of Video Card: 2D/3D Video w/TV Support
Slot Type: AGP
AGP Support: AGP 4X
AGP 8X
Chipset Brand: ATI
Chipset: RADEON 9800 Pro
Installed Video Memory: 128 MB
Memory Technology: DDR
RAMDAC Speed: 400 MHz
Max Resolution: 2048 x 1536
Refresh Rate at Max Resolution: 85 Hz
Color Depth at Maximum Resolution: 16.7 Million Colors (24-bit)
Video Standards: HDTV NTSC (Full)

As I don't own either one of these, I can't say which is the best, but I can tell you this. The GeForce card that you list, shows to be a PCi Express card, and you have to have a motherboard that supports that. Unless you have a pretty new computer and or motherboard, you can rule that one out. I'll bet you have a AGP slot, so if you do, be sure and look for AGP cards only. IF you need an AGP card the 6600GT also comes in AGP version.

ok asume the GeForce is AGP then, anyone know which is better?

nvm, going with radeon 9800 pro, but 1 more question, can it run doom 3 on highest settings? my comp is 2.40 ghz with 1gb RAM

I'd go with the 6600GT, but it's ur call.

yeap,
the geforce is MUCH better

nvidia is better in my opinion

Check out "benchmarks" and user reviews on both cards.
Buy the card that appeals to your budget.
In todays gfx card market there is literally such a close % difference of performance you prob wouldnt even notice. Go with the card you are comfterable with. The 9800 pro is one of the best bang for your buck cards on the market. But thats up to you and your wallet. Price v.s performance

Cheers

i don't think there is any card that can run doom3 on the highest settings (ultra)... if i am correct, they made it for a 512mb card... but then again people say they can run doom3 on 1600x1200 on Ultra... i can't tell you if you can from personal experience because i'm not going to try it

I have been looking up benchmarks on different sites that claim R and Nv gpus can run doom 3 at 1600x1200 using aa and a.

However they are only getting 40 -50 fps avg. - who wants a slideshow when u are playing games lol.

Turn off aa and af and set the res to 1280x1024 then u are getting 90-100 fps - according to Hard|Ocp

http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQy

My 2 cents
Cheers

Could be true.

I think that is correct, however, one of my friends claims that his dad's new X800 can handle it.

Personally I am 9800 pro fan. good choice.

Radeon might be better but there is a minus of course.. The ATI gfx card's drivers are nothing compared to nVidia's Forceware. I have a few friends with radeon 9600 and 9250 who seem to keep having new problems every week with their gfx cards.. one of them can't play absolutely any game for over a year now..

:grinthumb but anyway i'd give the new 9800 pro a try...good choice :grinthumb

it all depends for what drivers the games are build. i know for a fact that farcry will run a lot better on any ati card than nvidia just because it was optimized for that kind of card. another thing that you should ask yourself is the manifacturer of the card. in my biased opinion, i would go with 6600gt but i heard that x850 pe can kill 6800 ultra so i am considering my opinion

From my perspective - I have always been an ATI fan.
I have never really had many issues with their drivers.
If the driver installation is proper and the removal of old drivers from the other graphics card and the registry is all cleaned up- then you shouldnt have a problem. Here is a tool I have used in the past.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3214.html

Its called driver cleaner. Give it a try to remove any old forceware or Catalyst drivers.

On the other hand the new detonators for Nv based cards are hard to compete with. They are written to optimize the gameplay and performance of most newer DirectX and Open Gl games.

Either driver should be removed before a software installation of either product. You should also use a registry cleaner of some sort as well.

Play on Ultra

Ok the truth is that card prolly wont play doom3 at ultra cuz my friend has a radeon 9800 pro 256mb card that freezes when he tries to play doom3.. but then again... he has 56k for internet so i doubt hes updated his drivers.. or even thought about it... It runs beautifully on high though... it kind of makes me sad that i dont have that good of a video card... and ironically hes borrowing doom3 from me.....

??!!?....??

The difference

Ok im going by what the old saying used to go to clear up the confusion for
Easy

ATI cards are more optimized for openGL thus making some of the games that are more openGL based then.. ??? sigh i forgot what invidia optimizes again..

Oh well here... Games can be optimized for a video card
Farcry im guessing was optimized for openGL which is the driver powering the ati video cards

There are other games that are optimized for.. crap wait for edited version of this post... which is the driver mainly powering the nvidia video cards

Most games are optimized for one of these drivers.. although some have been optimized for both

if that didnt solve ur confusion.. im sry but i tried to explain

ATI has better D3D performance, nVidia has better OGL.

Drivers for both have their strengths and weakness, as of late, Nvidia is having more than their share of bugs.

Don't favor companies and don't generalize models... And not all ATI and nVidia cards are equal. It really isn't fair to clump together all the Radeons vs all the GeForces.

I'm pretty certain the 6600GT will out perform a 9800 at Doom III. If not because it is a faster card, because Doom III is heavily optimized for nVidia GPUs. And this will play a big role in future gaming, as the Doom III engine will probably be used in any upcoming games. Then again, Half-Life 2 is optimized for ATI GPUs... Same story for ATI.

Does that mean Doom III will run crappy on a 9800? Not at all. But I'd be careful with the detail settings if I were you. To bump it up to full, you really do need the BEST video card out there, and neither one mentioned is it.

And about 'bad drivers"... A lot of the problems you experience with games are because of the games theirselves. nVidia has had some notorious and almos ledgendary problems (infinite loop is a good one), but so has ATI. The blame game doesn't get very far here though. I dream of a day that PC games work 100% of the time.. heck, 85% would be nice.

lol.. well said

I am beginnning to hate this term "optimized" Why cant gpu companies just say we cut out all the pretty and functional parts of the software and focus the hardware capabilities on the actual resolution game play and fps