X700 Pro vs. 6600 GT
Why are we facing off the X700 Pro and the 6600GT? Pricing and availability are the two culprits there. There are no X700 XT parts to be had, and the only thing in the marketplace to compete with NVIDIA's Geforce 6600 GT from ATI is the Radeon X700 Pro. Finding a PCIe 6600 GT at $200 is a simple matter, and from what we see, there's all of a $20 spread between cheaper 256MB X700 Pros and the 128MB versions centered around the 6600 GT price point.That being said, we do expect the $200 spent on a Geforce 6600GT to go further than on an X700 Pro. In order to test this theory, we ran some quick side-by-side performance tests of the two just to find out what the story is. We chose a resolution of 1280x1024, and tested with and without antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.
| Half-Life 2 at_coast_12-rev7 | |||
| Radeon X700 Pro 256 | Geforce 6600GT | Performance Advantage | |
| noAA/AF | 73.1 | 87.8 | 20.10% |
| 4xAA/8xAF | 48.1 | 53.3 | 10.80% |
| Winner | - | - | 6600GT |
| Doom 3 | |||
| Radeon X700 Pro 256 | Geforce 6600GT | Performance Advantage | |
| High Quality noAA | 35.2 | 60.1 | 70.70% |
| High Quality 4xAA | 18.8 | 27.6 | 46.80% |
| Winner | - | - | 6600GT |
| Far Cry Performance | |||
| Radeon X700 Pro 256 | Geforce 6600GT | Performance Advantage | |
| noAA/AF | 50 | 58.6 | 17.20% |
| 4xAA/8xAF | 26.5 | 29.3 | 10.60% |
| Winner | - | - | 6600GT |
| Unreal Tournament 2004 Performance | |||
| Radeon X700 Pro 256 | Geforce 6600GT | Performance Advantage | |
| noAA/AF | 54.7 | 51.9 | 5.10% |
| 4xAA/8xAF | 37 | 33.4 | 9.70% |
| Winner | - | - | X700 Pro |
| Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory | |||
| Radeon X700 Pro 256 | Geforce 6600GT | Performance Advantage | |
| noAA/AF | 76.9 | 90.5 | 17.70% |
| 4xAA/8xAF | 44.1 | 58.7 | 33.10% |
| Winner | - | - | 6600GT |
We can easily see from these quick tests that the 6600GT holds a pretty consistent performance advantage over the X700, even in Half-Life 2. The only title in which the X700 leads is Unreal Tournament 2004.
Aside from architecture and performance, there are a few other differences. Most of the 6600GT vendors that we looked at in our recent review came with an HDTV dongle. This accessory allows us to connect to the component input of an HDTV rather than having to go through the DVI port (which some TVs don't have). ATI also offers HDTV support through a component dongle. We only received the ATI dongle in one of our vendor's packages, and we were less impressed with the ATI interface.
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Gaia Hunter - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
@11:Dont forget most 6800 vanillas can easly be softmoded with rivatuner:
-All will get the 6th vertex unit;
-Good chance of getting the additionall 4 pixel pipes too.
I was able to go to 16,6. That gave me a 25% boost in 3dmark03 and 33% bost in 3dmark05.~
Also consider 6800 LE (around $250). Most can get 12 pipes and 5 vertex. If u get lucky u can get to 16,6.
While u cant always do this, consider that nvidia is implementing a new way to mask the Pipilines! think about that :)
Questar - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
>>Mid range and PCIe dont mix right now. who would get mid range card if they were dishing out big bucks to get a PCIe setup??Me. Assuming 3Ghz is midrange.
Alphafox78 - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
Mid range and PCIe dont mix right now. who would get mid range card if they were dishing out big bucks to get a PCIe setup?? AGP still has 98% market share, but I guess the 2% high end stuff is worth forgetting agp over.DerekWilson - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
#18the wildcat is a professional card, not a consumer level card. the wildcat realizm 200 competes with the quadro, not the geforce.
nurazlanshah - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
im just wondering, why dont people just use 3dlabs wildcat realizm 200 if they really want the best computer and if they have the money? i would do that.http://www.3dlabs.com/products/product.asp?prod=29...
skunkbuster - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
#16, i think they do that in order to eliminate the cpu as being a bottleneckalexlck - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
nice review but there is something that i don't understand.When people is looking for a mid-range video card, they are usually having a medicore setup. so what's the point to test a mid-range card with a
$1,000+ CPU?
can you please retest those cards with 3Ghz/3000+ cpu?
Which, i think, will give some more realistic results.
ShadowVlican - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
i can confirm #12 statement about the "2004 Performance" cause i see that too.. stoopid ad :/too bad ati... better bring out the new X800s now and lower the price too :D cause ur X700Pro can't touch the 6600gt :P
DerekWilson - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
Thanks Pete. Corrected the typo.Pete - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
Hey Derek, slight typo in the Doom 3 benches. I think you mwant to say AA rather than aniso in the first sentence, as HQ mode in D3 uses 8xAF by default.Sorry, I can't get as excited about this article as the last simply b/c the cards are uninspiring. Better luck next SKU, ATI.