Unreal Tournament 2004
We start this series of tests with results from Unreal Tournament 2004. The graph’s colors are indicative of an NVIDIA or ATI graphic card and not results.
The GeForce 6600GT made a great start with a performance level almost equivalent to our card of reference, the GeForce 6800. It’s slightly better than a Radeon 9800 Pro and clearly above the GeForce FX 5900XT. A comparison with the previous “top of the mid-range” card, the GeForce FX 5700U, shows the improvement made one generation later. The standard GeForce 6600 has performances equivalent to this chip.
There were two noteworthy points during this test. First, the PCI Express has trouble when video memory is exceeded and the game starts using AGP texturing: PCX5900 and X600 XT (each 128 MB) performances drop abnormally in 1600*1200 AA 4X/Aniso 8X compared to the other cards. As for the top-of-the-line X800 Pro / 6800 GT, it’s interesting to note that the PCI Express permits to play in 1600*1200 AA 4X/ Aniso 8X with an equivalent performance to the 6600GT in 1024*768 under equivalent settings. Does this improvement in resolution deserve an additional investment? It’s your choice.
Far Cry
For Far cry we used the SM2.0B or SM3.0 path when possible. This path uses longer shaders to accelerate dynamic lighting management and also Geometry Instancing for rendering the grass outdoors.
GeForce 6600GT performances are excellent with Far Cry even if they are not as good as the 6800 (except in 1600 4X/8X however it’s possible to play at both resolutions). Critiquing 6600 GT performances compared to the 6800’s really isn’t justified, though, as they represent different parts of the market. Results are clearly above the GeForce FX 5900XT or 9800 Pro and way above the PCX 5900 and FX 5700U. The standard 6600 has better performances than the 5900XT, and is close to the 9800 Pro.
