NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (page 11: Conclusion)

Conclusion

When we first saw these chips we were quite surprised with their characteristics, especially the replacement of a large 256 MB bus by a high frequency memory. The presence of a 4 ROP engines instead of an 8 led us to believe that the performance wouldn’t be as good. Results proved the opposite.

Indeed, during tests the GeForce 6600 GT showed a great performance for a “mid level” graphic card. After tests it proved that putting the GeForce 6 name on this line was correct. This architecture was conceived to provide the best performance with the available bandwidth.

The 6600 GT’s numerous capabilities are similar to top-of-the-line graphic cards with the Shader Model 3.0 and the Floating Point Buffer. The included video engine should also start to provide great performance. Finally, the SLI is an appreciable bonus even if we still have to see how it affects performance and the price of motherboards.

The former NV43 graphic card should be a success on the PCI Express market. The AGP version should be available at the end of October (so most likely November), and a success if released on schedule. The competition will be the 9800 Pro and to a lesser extent the GeForce FX 5900 XT.

In NVIDIA’s shadow ATI is currently planning its next move. Indeed, according to the latest rumours the Canadian manufacturer should release a Radeon X700, a serious competitor for the GeForce 6600 GT. The ball is in ATI’s court.