6600 256MB vs. 6600GT 128MB

[mwdowns]

Hello everyone. :) Nice forum you have here! Been browsing around and saw lots of interesting stuff.

I'm looking to upgrade my crappy Radeon 9200SE AGP card (I know, I know...I just didn't get the "never buy an SE card" advice until after I had bought the card!).

At first, I was deciding between a Sapphire Radeon 9600XT and an ASUS Geforce 6600. I was advised in another forum that I should go with the Geforce 6600 and that I should ditch the vanilla and pick up a GT. Upon looking at the benchmarch scores on Tom's Hardware, I decided to go the Geforce way (I use Linux a lot and Nvidia seems to be less of a hassle with Linux).

However, I am still stuck between the vanilla card and the GT. The vanilla card is one with 256MB RAM, while the GT has 128MB. Also, the vanilla card is about 6000 yen (around 50 bucks) less than the GT. The vanilla is about 110 bucks, while the GT is about 160.

My game playing habits do not lean towards the Half Life, Call of Duty side of gaming. I mostly play stuff like Civilization, SimCity, StarCraft, and (more recently) A Tale in the Desert. I might try out WoW sometime...seems kinda interesting.

Also, I am hoping to get a year-plus or two or more out of the card (trying to milk my Athlon XP 2500+ for as much as I can!).

My questions are these: am I going to kick myself in the future for not getting the GT? Should I just bite the bullet and get the GT? Does the 256MB RAM for the vanilla card make much of a difference between the 128MB for the GT?

Thanks for your help.

My computer specs: Athlon XP 2500+, ASUS A7V8X-MX, 512MB PC2700 RAM (soon to be 1280MB).

[Infinity666]

GT all the way

[shabby]

Not only will you kick yourself for not getting the gt, but so will we... get the gt.
More memory will not help on a slower card.

[mwdowns]

Thanks for the replies!

OK. I don't want to be kicked. :) I'll get the GT.

Miser that I am, I went searching and found a cheaper (by about 1000 yen...I said miser) GT. The cheaper one is by Gigabyte. What are the differences between the manufacturers of the card?

Upon closer inspection, I noticed the memory speed for the ASUS is listed as 900mhz, while the Gigabyte is listed as 1000mhz. The Gigabyte one has a faster memory speed, but is less money. The only reason I could see is that the ASUS one comes with a Japanese manual (I live in Japan, so I am buying from a Japanese site).

Anyway, I'll be getting a GT pretty soon. Thanks again for your input.

[nV`andrew]

You could get the gigabyte one, even if it does not have a japanese manual, as you seem to read and write english quite fluently. Anyways, there is not too much of a difference in the card manufacturers. If the site has reviews, read the reviews on both the asus and gigabyte. The gigabyte looks like a good deal in this situation. Good luck with the upgrade!

[mwdowns]

You could get the gigabyte one, even if it does not have a japanese manual, as you seem to read and write english quite fluently. Anyways, there is not too much of a difference in the card manufacturers. If the site has reviews, read the reviews on both the asus and gigabyte. The gigabyte looks like a good deal in this situation. Good luck with the upgrade!

Thanks for the reply. I'll go with the Gigabyte.

Also, I'm not Japanese, just living in Japan! ;)

[Gentle]

As long as the memory modules are 2ns ram, most memory will clock to 1000MHz without an issue.

If you have 1.6ns ram (not common in recent time) you could clock to 1200MHz easily.

You will probably get 2.0ns ram.

Good luck.

Gentle

[john19055]

You should go with the 6600GT even though it has less memory because it will be faster in games and most come clocked at 500/1000 ,and most plain 6600 comes clocked at 300/500 on memory ,so with the memory being so slow the extra 128mbs really just don't help ,it just a quimick to get people to buy it.the extra money for the 6600GT is well worth it IMO.

[mwdowns]

Thanks for all the advice, folks. :)

I just ordered the Gigabyte Geforce 6600GT (http://tw2005.giga-byte.com/VGA/Products/Products_GV-N66T128D.htm). Hopefully it'll be arriving in the mail soon. And I'll let you know how the install goes.

Again, thanks for your help.

[Gentle]

Few things to remember.

You need a power supply that cranks out a lot of AMPS on the +12v rail.

6600GT AGP needs a power lead plugged into the card. Prefereably nothing else sharing the lead. Don't know if your current card uses one or not...

If you have performance issues, look into uninstalling and reinstalling the motherboard GART driver for the AGP bus. It's easy and is often the solution to performance issues.

Gentle

[mwdowns]

Few things to remember.

You need a power supply that cranks out a lot of AMPS on the +12v rail.

6600GT AGP needs a power lead plugged into the card. Prefereably nothing else sharing the lead. Don't know if your current card uses one or not...

If you have performance issues, look into uninstalling and reinstalling the motherboard GART driver for the AGP bus. It's easy and is often the solution to performance issues.

Gentle

Thanks for the pointers, Gentle.

About the power supply...I have a 400W powersupply. I'm pretty sure I've got power to spare. My current card does use a power lead. I haven't opened up the case in a while, but I remember there being a lot of extra power leads. I should be OK.

I have no idea what you're talking about with the GART driver. :) But, if I have performcance issues, I'll be back!

One question: I downloaded the newest version of Nvidia's drivers. I'm going to assume that it would be better to use those instead of the drivers included on the CD that comes with the card. An OK assumption?

And I'm just going to use the ATI driver uininstall utility, turn off the computer, change cards, and then boot back up. That should get me where I need to be (as per installing the new drivers), right?

[911medic]

When switching from an ATI card to an nVidia one, you may find it beneficial to use DriverCleaner (www.drivercleaner.net). Instructions with the program.

[warzer]

I want to throw another card at you. the 6800 GS. I got the 6600gt a few months back and got the 6800gs for my 2nd computer. well now i totally regret spending the money on the gt when for nearly the same price you can get the 6800gs. just from playing fear and wow and swg and few other games the GS blows the gt out of the water. my lowest frame rate on fear with the gs is nearly 2-3x higher then the gt. I also have a barton 2500 o/c to 2ghz. I think we have similar systems and i can say that the gs will definatly give you that extra yr or more. If it wasn't for the darn dual cores i wouldn't be upgrading. I also alrady purchased a 2nd gs to replace my gt.

Thanks the faith i have in this new price/preformance KING!!

Good luck on your purchase only purchase what you want and want to spend or that dreaded buyers remorse sets in. I hate that :P

War

[mwdowns]

Good luck on your purchase only purchase what you want and want to spend or that dreaded buyers remorse sets in. I hate that :P

War

Curse you, warzer! :P Just kidding...whether or not you said anything, I alway have buyers' remorse. Cause I always seem to find a cheaper deal once I make a purchase. I have to be one of the most idiotic consumers in the world.

Seriously, though, I am not at all unhappy with my purchase. I think it will give me exactly what I need.

As per Drive Cleaner...I've got a copy of that (used to use it when I would update my ATI drivers)...thanks for reminding me.

Now I'm just waiting...waiting. Got my extra gig of RAM yesterday, so now all I need is my new video card, and I'll be properly geeked out. :)

[mwdowns]

Well, after some problems with ordering my card online (not in stock...didn't want to wait, so canceled the order), I ended up heading to the mainland and getting an ELSA Gladiac 6600GT.

I installed it and got the latest forceware drivers working. It seems to be doing OK.

However, while at the store, I noticed an ASUS 6800GS for cheaper. Since I had contented myself on buying a GT, I bought the GT. However, I just noticed a thread saying that it would be better to get the 6800GS. I can return the card, if I want to. Would it be better to return the 6600GT for the 6800GS?

I always hate buying things at stores, cause you can't check out the interent before making your final decision. And, as I stated before, I'm a horrible consumer.

Thanks again to everyone for their input. :)

EDITED to add a couple questions: how easy is it to unlock the extra pipelines, and overclock the card (to bring it on par with a 6800GT)? And is it worth it in regards to my stated gaming habits vs. the wear and tear on the card?

[Gentle]

If it isn't out of your budget the 6800GS is a much more capable card.

I did not suggest it because you did not mention it.

The 6800GS has 256 meg of ram or 128 meg?

If it's 256 meg of ram, snatch that up. Even if it doesn't unlock it's a better card than the 6600GT. The 6600GT isn't a bad card at all. It's just the 6800GS is better.

The 6800GS has a 256bit memory controller. The 6600GT has a 128bit memory controller.

To unlock, you load up RivaTuner, select a few menu options (might need a reboot) and it will either give you a speed increase with no degradation in graphics quality or it may glitch... Glitch is just that, you see a graphic "glitch" on the screen. If that happens, you merely unselect the options you selected (might need to reboot) and it's all good.

But, look around for a better message thread about unlocking using RivaTuner. I've never done it.

Gentle

[mwdowns]

Hey Gentle.

Thanks for the advice. I can't remember whether or not the card had 256mb RAM. I do remember that the RAM wasn't listed as DDR3 (like it was on the GT). But, I think I might make a trip to the mainland next week. So, I'll take my card in-box and receipt along with me. If the GS is still there, I'll make the exchange.

As you said, though, the GT is a nice card...faster than anything I've ever had. So, if the GS is gone or not 256MB RAM, I won't be disappointed.

Boo on in store shopping! Boo! :D

EDITED to add: if I have the drivers already setup in Windows, will it be a problem just to switch out the cards?

[jcniest5]

EDITED to add: if I have the drivers already setup in Windows, will it be a problem just to switch out the cards?

Nope, in the worst case it will do a refresh for you. If it asks for a CD or driver, just point it to your CD (in which case it'll automatically find it for you anyway). If you install the driver from executing a downloaded file, just re-run that file to reinstall the driver. I've done it numerous times w/o any problem. Yeah, I also agree that if the 6800GS is actually cheaper, get it, exchange your 6600GT for it.