My Radeon 9600 Pro stopped working today and I've been looking for a replacement. My budget is about 250$ and I've been strongly considering purchasing a PNY Geforce 6600 GT as a replacement. I can't find any comparisons between the 6600GT and the 9600 Pro so I would like to know how the two compare.
Of course I am partial, in this matter, but my homework before buying was extensive. The 9600 is comparable to a 5700, so in essence, the 6600 beats the 9600. Go for the GT model and you won't be dissapointed. I currently OC at 560/1070, and can hang with most "single" 6800 players. Even without OC, it still is a great card for the money: (upper mid range). Enjoy...... Link to review of nvidia vs ati: http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=438&catid=2
No need I went from a 9700 Pro and the jump is easily noticable, Toms Hardware has a VGA comparision chart if you look at that but the two are in different charts because they are different generations. So you might need to open the two different charts side by side in two windows. I would deffinitly get the 6600
i went from a 9600pro to a 6600GT to a 6800le. and i must say, either new card easily trounces the old radeon i would suggest getting a 6800nu over a 6600GT however, these cards have more memory bandwith, and it really show when you open up the AA
the 9600 pro sucks and i know it. -> the 9600 pro has only 4 pixel shader pipelines which is slow. the memory bandwidth is slow as well, so its not that great of a video card. but i got it for free. : ] i used to have a 9600xt which ran better than the 9600 pro. it cost me 170 bucks. performance was good, but not good enough (a need of upgrading would come to you real soon). but it only had 4 pixel shader pipelines as well, but ran ok (doom 3 - ultra high - 1024x768 - 25 fps) I recommend the 6600gt. i've benchmarked a lot of video cards and etc., and the 6600 gt performs really well for the pricetag. but i would not recommend the pny 6600 gt since pny really doesnt have technological advances in graphics cards. i recommend an MSI 6600GT (Available in AGP or PCIE), which has a 200 dollar price tag, which isnt bad. the 9600xt was 170, 30 bucks more, you can get the 6600gt which runs a LOT better than the 9600xt. 9600 pro - 4 pixel shader pipelines 6600gt - 8 pixel shader pipelines 6800 - 12 pixel shader pipelines 6800gt - 16 pixel shader pipelines the choice is up to you, and I'm getting an msi 6600gt myself. i dont like the 9600 pro.
6600GT is a good buy ... i play games at 1280x1024,2x/4x aa,8x/16x af,maxed settings ... the only place of weakness is the 128bit memory ... that means u'll have to use loww aa,medium af at high res. .... hdr will be a bit of a backdrop ... but still this card is a very good buy ... PS : if only the 6600GT had 256bit memory .....!!!!
agree with you deathvirus. maybe thats why i relied on my 5900XT for 4 months more to get enough money to buy the 6800GT. however i agree if you can buy the 6600GT buy it. it is the better card compared to its bro from ati the X700 which is really bad. this card is going to eat it for lunch.
6600GT can beat the standard 6800 in some cases. http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050524/vga_charts-02.html#3d_mark_2005
that charts a crock imo. sry but i got 4000ish with my bone stock 6800nu. the score they are posting is way to low. must be a misprint. 2635 ! no way ...
The 6600GT is better than the 9600XT hands down. But I would look at an ATi card. There faster cards than Nvidia pretty much all around. Nvidia has SM3.0 but I can't tell the diffference nor can most people. And ATi's new CrossFire has already bested Nvidia's SLI in the 3DMark 2005 Benchmark. True it's a Benchmark but you won't need a stinking profile to have support in any of your games either.
With $250 get a 6800nu not the 6600gt... btw, the 6600gt is equal to the 6800 on low resolutions and no AA... but when playing with higher resolutions and AA the 6800 will win because of the 4 more pipes... and if u were lucky to unlock the remaning pipes u will have a nice boost and it will probably kill the 6600gt...
WEnt from 9600xt to 6600gt and noticed a good performance change. Also I can use higher detail settings than before and the card handles AF very well. The 128-bit bus limits the card a bit when using AA though.
Just out of reference: The 6800NU should perform better than the 6600GT. But the 6600GT overclocks like hell. Got 560/1140 and got 3930 in 3dMark05. And all of this on stock coolers. Close to the 6800NU. On the otherside, game play counts and both cards perform well in games. I'll wait a 2-3 months before buying. The next gen GPU's are coming out and will push the prices down.
Hm, 4xAA is already too much for a 6600GT. But AF is another story. If I force it to 16x, my 3DMark2001 score only goes down a few hundred poins. Down from 16k+
I doubt that card can survive Battlefield 2 at maximum settings. For mainstream, that card is pretty good!
