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NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT AGP Performance Preview November 16, 2004 Brandon Sandman Bell |
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Summary: After months of waiting, the AGP variant of NVIDIA's GeForce 6600 GT is finally here! The new card ships with a slightly different board design and clock speeds, and the reference board even shipped with dual DVI connectors! Read up on all the changes and see how the new card compares to the GeForce 6800, RADEON 9800 PRO, RADEON 9600 XT, and RADEON 9800 XT in today's article!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 20 ) |
The end result is a product that delivers more than enough performance for today’s latest games, with good visual quality and shader model 3.0 compliance for the next generation of DX9 games of tomorrow. But what if you don’t have $400 to shell out for a graphics card? This is where NVIDIA’s GeForce 6600 GT comes in.
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The GeForce 6600 GT is based on the same fundamental technology as the GeForce 6800 GT, this includes NVIDIA’s more powerful CineFX 3.0 shading engine, which features completely redesigned pixel and vertex shaders, support for shader model 3.0, UltraShadow II, and 64-bit texture filtering and blending. The only significant change is that the 6600 GT’s core components have been sliced in half.
The 6600 GT sports half the number of pixel pipelines, sixteen in GeForce 6800 GT versus eight in the 6600 GT, half the vertex units (six in 6800 GT compared to three in 6600 GT), and a 128-bit memory interface that is powered by two 64-bit memory controllers, versus four 64-bit memory controllers in GeForce 6800 GT for a 256-bit interface. Fortunately, the 6600 GT’s core components aren’t the only aspects that have been halved; the 6600 GT’s price tag is also sliced in two with an MSRP of $200.
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But a cutting-edge feature set and mainstream pricing aren’t the only positives GeForce 6600 GT has going for it, the card is also an impressive performer. In our performance preview in September, we found it was capable of outperforming last year’s high-end $500 graphics cards in many games under a variety of situations. As long as you didn’t tax the card’s 128-bit memory subsystem too hard with high levels of AA or AF, the 6600 GT was usually able to outperform ATI’s more expensive RADEON 9800 XT.
The only initial downside to the GeForce 6600 GT was its interface, the first GeForce 6600 GTs that were shipped were PCI Express-based, this caveat shut out 95% (or more) of the do-it-yourself enthusiast crowd that’s usually so quick to adopt brand-spanking new cards like the GeForce 6600 GT. But all that’s changed as NVIDIA and its board partners have recently begun shipping AGP-based GeForce 6600 GT cards to retailers like Newegg, who currently sells the XFX GeForce 6600 GT AGP for $245 online, just in time for the holidays!
Today we’re taking NVIDIA’s reference GeForce 6600 GT AGP out for a spin, let’s see how it compares to a few other graphics card options out there…
| 6600 GT AGP card | Page:: ( 2 / 20 ) |
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Revised specs
Unfortunately, the GeForce 6600 GT AGP doesn’t match the PCI Express card spec for spec. While the GeForce 6600 GT AGP features the same 500MHz core clock frequency as the PCI Express card that was launched earlier this year, NVIDIA clocks the GeForce 6600 GT’s memory at 450MHz (900MHz effective), this is 50MHz slower than the PCI Express 6600 GT’s memory speed. This change drops peak bandwidth from 16GB/sec on the PCI Express 6600 GT, to 14.4GB/sec on the AGP card. Other than this difference, the rest of the 6600 GT’s core specs are the same as the PCI Express variant (although of course, you should also keep in mind that SLI is a feature that’s exclusive to the PCI Express GeForce 6600 GT, AGP cards cannot be combined together for increased performance).
Reference board design
With the revised memory clock speed in mind, the first component we looked at when receiving our reference GeForce 6600 GT board was its memory. Sure enough, NVIDIA uses the same Samsung 2.0ns GDDR3 modules for the GeForce 6600 GT AGP as they do for the PCI Express card and the GeForce 6800 GT. These modules are officially rated for operation at up to 500MHz, so you have a little bit of headroom for overclocking if you’d like to overclock your 6600 GT AGP board’s memory.
Looking over the Samsung Semiconductor website reveals that the 2.0ns GDDR3 modules are currently the entry-level GDDR3 offering for Samsung at the moment, there is no listing for a 2.2ns, 450MHz module. Therefore, as long as the retail GeForce 6600 GT AGP cards that are hitting the market are using GDDR3 modules, we feel pretty confident in saying that the boards are using 2.0ns memory, at least for right now. If you happen to come across a GDDR2 or DDR 6600 GT board however, all bets are off, as Samsung does produce 2.2ns GDDR2 and DDR SDRAM modules. At launch we were told that all PCI Express GeForce 6600 GT cards would ship with GDDR3 memory, so hopefully that’s also the case for the AGP card as well.
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One change you’ll immediately recognize is the dual DVI outputs on the GeForce 6600 GT AGP reference card (the reference shots provided by NVIDIA feature a 6600 GT with a DVI/VGA combination). By providing dual DVI connections, end users can combine a more flexible array of display combinations; this should come as welcome news for flat-panel users. With NVIDIA handling all early GeForce 6600 GT AGP board production, board partners like ASUS, BFG, eVGA, and PNY should all be providing dual DVI 6600 GT AGP cards. The XFX card listed on Newegg also sports dual DVI connections.
The second major difference you’ll notice is the orientation of the 6600 GT graphics core. In order to make room for the AGP bridge chip (NVIDIA marketing refers to it as HSI, which is short for high-speed interconnect), NVIDIA rotated the graphics core and its memory approximately 45 degrees. The bridge chip is then placed directly beneath the graphics core, at an angle parallel with the edge of the board. A second heatsink is used to cool the bridge chip, this heatsink is rotated 45 degrees off-axis of the bridge chip in order to fit properly. The aluminum heatsink used to cool the graphics core is the same cooler used on the PCI Express GeForce 6600 GT and does not cool the board’s memory.
By rotating the NV43 graphics core and its memory 45 degrees, NVIDIA is able to drop the bridge chip on the same PCB as the PCI Express GeForce 6600 GT. This is important for keeping production costs down.
You will however notice that unlike the PCI Express GeForce 6600 GT, the AGP GeForce 6600 GT requires an external power source. The AGP interface just isn’t capable of supplying enough juice for the card. If you don’t plug up the board’s power connection, it will operate at slower clock speeds.
| Test systems | Page:: ( 3 / 20 ) |
System Setup
AMD Athlon 64 4000+
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
1GB OCZ EL DDR400 Platinum Edition Rev 2
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
ATI RADEON 9800 XT
ATI RADEON 9600 XT
Driver version CAT 4.12 beta
Leadtek WinFast A400 GeForce 6800
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT reference card
Driver version 66.93
250GB Maxtor Hard Drive Maxline III SATA Hard Drive w/16MB Cache
Windows XP Professional SP1
DirectX 9.0c
Benchmarks
Lock On: Modern Air Combat (Mig-29 custom demo)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (T3 custom demo)
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (The Black Death track)
Splinter Cell (FS custom demo)
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (Beyond3D custom demo)
Halo: Combat Evolved (stock benchmark)
Far Cry 1.2 (custom demo for mp_jungle, SM2.0b and SM3.0 paths used)
DOOM 3 (gameplay custom demo)
| Lock On: Modern Air Combat | Page:: ( 4 / 20 ) |
Lock On: Modern Air Combat – Direct3D
| UT 2004 4xAA | Page:: ( 5 / 20 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2004
| UT 2004 4xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 6 / 20 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2004
| Splinter Cell | Page:: ( 7 / 20 ) |
Splinter Cell – Direct3D
| Tomb Raider | Page:: ( 8 / 20 ) |
Tomb Raider – Direct3D
| Tomb Raider | Page:: ( 9 / 20 ) |
Tomb Raider – Direct3D
| Halo | Page:: ( 10 / 20 ) |
Halo – Direct3D
| Far Cry Volcano | Page:: ( 11 / 20 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Volcano 2xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 12 / 20 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Volcano 4xAA | Page:: ( 13 / 20 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Far Cry Training | Page:: ( 14 / 20 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Training 2xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 15 / 20 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Training 4xAA | Page:: ( 16 / 20 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| DOOM 3 High Quality 8xAF | Page:: ( 17 / 20 ) |
DOOM 3 – OpenGL
Notes
When looking at the DOOM 3 numbers, it’s important to keep in mind that we’re running our own custom demos now, and not the stock demo1 benchmark that ships with the game.
| DOOM 3 Med Quality 4xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 18 / 20 ) |
DOOM 3 – OpenGL
| Overclocking | Page:: ( 19 / 20 ) |
DOOM 3 – OpenGL
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 20 / 20 ) |
With its eight-pipeline architecture and 256-bit memory interface, the RADEON 9800 PRO delivers very good performance, trumping all previous mainstream solutions at the $200 price point. That is until the GeForce 6600 GT AGP arrived.
The GeForce 6600 GT doesn’t boast a 256-bit memory interface, but thanks largely to its screaming 8 pipeline graphics core which operates at 500MHz, the GeForce 6600 GT was able to outperform the RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB in our testing, in fact the 6600 GT was actually more competitive with the RADEON 9800 XT, which is a 256MB graphics card that retailed for $500 this time last year. It’s pretty remarkable to see how far the mainstream segment has come in such a short period of time.
But now the question everyone’s wondering is when ATI will respond with an AGP variant of the X700 XT. Unfortunately, we can’t answer that one, as ATI has been pretty mum about the topic since announcing the X700 family in September. We were initially under the impression the first cards would begin shipping around this timeframe, but based on all indications, it looks like ATI is still at least a few weeks out and probably won’t have anything ready before the end of the month.
Meanwhile, NVIDIA’s board partners are shipping their retail GeForce 6600 GT cards to retailers as we speak. The first batch of cards can already be purchased online from a handful of places, with availability expected to increase in the coming weeks.
With Half-Life 2’s retail debut and the holiday shopping season upon us, the window of opportunity for ATI is quickly closing. Countless gamers are looking for an inexpensive graphics upgrade solution. As of right now, the $200 card of choice for these consumers is quite clear: NVIDIA’s GeForce 6600 GT AGP!