NVIDIA's GeForce 6200 & 6600 non-GT: Affordable Gaming
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 11, 2004 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Sims 2 Performance
A new addition to our test suite, made especially for this article, is the latest installation of the Sims series. Sims 2 isn't the type of game that requires a $600 GeForce 6800 Ultra, but it is the type of game that does require some minimum level of graphics performance and is sometimes found installed on computers on which you would otherwise not find a single game. So, what are the minimum graphics requirements for a playable Sims experience? To find out, we benchmarked the camera flyby that occurs when you select the Pleasantview neighborhood. We used FRAPS to measure the average frame rate throughout the sequence.At 800x600, there's once again one clear winner here, the Radeon X700 by a huge margin (42%) over even the GeForce 6600. The GeForce 6600 is the distant 2nd place performer, and there's a huge clump of cards that perform similarly to the Radeon X600, with the 64-bit X300SE coming in last. Interestingly enough, even the slowest X300SE manages to play the game reasonably well at 800x600 with the highest detail settings possible.
For more, let's look at the resolution scaling graph:
Notes from the Lab
ATI X300: The X300 offers performance very similar to that of the X600 Pro and the GeForce 6200. The game is not totally smooth, but is definitely playable at 800x600. There is a significant amount of aliasing at 800x600, but without a faster card, there's little you can do about it.ATI X300SE: There is a noticeable performance difference between the X300 and X300SE, yet even the X300SE can play the game reasonably well at 800x600. If you turn down the detail settings, the performance improves dramatically.
ATI X600 Pro: Although the X600 Pro performs similarly to the GeForce 6200 and 6600, the frame rate is much more stable than either of those two. There's far less stuttering when scrolling around the game world.
ATI X700: The X700 continues to be much, much faster than the rest of the contenders here.
NVIDIA GeForce 6200/6600: Both the 6200 and 6600 exhibit stuttering issues under Sims 2, although the game is definitely playable using either.
Intel Integrated Graphics: Here's where performance truly matters for Intel graphics - in a game like The Sims 2. This is the type of game that will be played by people who don't come within 100 yards of Doom 3 and who, honestly, shouldn't need to spend even $100 on a video card to play a game like this. How does the 915G fair? It actually plays the Sims pretty well. There is some loss in image quality it seems (just detail), but it's actually not bad at all. If you're building a computer for someone who only plays the Sims, Intel's integrated graphics is actually all you need. 800x600 looks pretty bad, but luckily, the game is playable at 10x7. You may have to turn down the detail settings as there is a bit of stuttering at the highest settings.
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Saist - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
xsliver : I think it's because ATi has generally cared more about optimizing for DirectX, and more recently just optimizing for API. OpenGl was never really big on ATi's list of supported API's... However, adding in Doom3, and the requirement of OGL on non-Windows-based systems, and OGL is at least as important to ATi now as DirectX. How long it will take to convert that priority into performance is unknown.Also, keep this in mind: Nvidia specifically built the Geforce mark-itecture from the ground up to power John Carmack's 3D dream. Nvidia has specifically stated they create their cards based on what Carmack says. Wether or not that is right or wrong I will leave up to you to decide, but that does very well explain the disparity between ID games and other games, even under OGL.
xsilver - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
Just a conspiracy theory -- does the NV cards only perform well on the most popular / publicised games whereas the ATI cards excel due to a better written driver / better hardware?Or is the FRAPS testing biasing ATI for some reason?
Cygni - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
What do you mean "who has the right games"? If you want to play Doom3, look at the Doom3 graphs. If you want to play FarCry, look a the FarCry graphs. If you want to play CoH, Madden, or Thunder 04, look at HardOCP's graphs. Every game is going to handle the cards differently. I really dont see anything wrong with AnandTech's current group of testing programs.And Newegg now has 5 6600 non-GTs in stock, ranging in price from $175-$148. But remember that it takes time to test and review these cards. When Anand went to get a 6600, its very likely that that was the only card he could find. I know I couldnt find one at all a week ago.
T8000 - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
Check this, a XFX 6600 in stock for just $143:http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.asp...
Furthermore, the games you pick for a review make a large difference for the conclusion. Because of that, HardOCP has the 6200 outperforming the x600 by a small margin. So, I would like to know who has the right games.
And #2:
The X700/X800 is simular enough to the 9800 to compare them on pipelines and clock speeds. Based on that, the x700 should perform about the same.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
Thanks for the responses, here are some answers in no specific order:1) The X300 was omitted from the Video Stress Test benchmark because CS: Source was released before we could finish testing the X300, no longer giving us access to the beta. We will run the cards on the final version of CS: Source in future reviews.
2) I apologize for the confusing conclusion, that statement was meant to follow the line before it about the X300. I've made the appropriate changes.
3) No prob in regards to the Video Processor, I've literally been asking every week since May about this thing. I will get the full story one way or another.
4) I am working on answering some of your questions about comparing other cards to what we've seen here. Don't worry, the comparisons are coming...
Take care,
Anand
friedrice - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
Here's my question, what is better? A Geforce 6800 or a Geforce 6600 GT? I wish there was like a Geforce round-up somewhere. And I saw some benchmarks that showed SLI does indeed work, but these were just used on 3dmark and anyone know if there is any actual tests out yet on SLI?Also to address another issue some of you have brought up, these new line of cards beat the 9800 Pro by a huge amount. But it's not worth the upgrade. Stick with what you have until it no longer works, and right now a 9800 Pro works just fine. Of course if you do need a new graphics card, the 6600 GT seems the way to go. If you can find someone that sells them.
O, and to address the pricing. nVidia only offers suggested retail prices. Vendors can up the price on parts so that they can still sell the inventory they have on older cards. In the next couple of months we should see these new graphics cards drop to the MSRP
ViRGE - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
#10, because it's still an MP game at the core. The AI is as dumb as rocks, and is there for the console users. Most PC users will be playing this online, not alone in SP mode.rbV5 - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
Thanks for the tidbit on the 6800's PVP. I'd like to see Anandtech take on a video card round up aimed at video processing and what these cards are actually capable of. It would fit in nicely with the media software/hardware Andrew's been looking at, and let users know what to actually expect from their hardware.thebluesgnr - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
Buyxtremegear has the GeForce 6600 from Leadtek for $135. Gameve has 3 different cards (Sparkle, XFX, Leadtek) all under $150 for the 128MB version.#1,
they're probably talking about the power consumption under full load.
Sunbird - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link
All I hope is that the 128bit and 64bit versions have some easy way of distinguishing between them.