BeHardware - News - January 13, 2005

NVIDIA announced the release of two new products in February. The first one, the GeForce 6600 AGP, is the PCI Express version equivalent. Both graphic cards are running at 300 MHz core with 250 to 275 MHz memory. In order to give you an idea here are the frequencies of the other 6600 graphic cards: 6600 GT AGP 500/450 and the 6600 GT PCI Express 500/500. The Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) will be US$ 149 and $199 for the 128 MB and 256 MB versions. The 128 MB version should be a serious competitor for the 9600 XT.

NVIDIA will also release another PCI Express graphic card based on the NV41: the GeForce 6800 LE. The core and memory of this castrated version will run at 325 MHz and 300 MHz (same as the 6800 PCI Express), but with only 8 pixel pipeline and 4 vertex shading unit (instead of 12 and 5 for the 6800). MSRP should be between US $229 and $279 “depending on the configuration”.

This graphic card performances (like the AGP version) should be approximately equivalent to the GeForce 6600 GT. So as the 128 MB version will be more expensive than a 6600 GT it shouldn’t be a good buy. Only the 256 MB version could be a bit interesting for an SLI configuration, but 2 x $279 is still quite expensive. We fell that it would be wiser to wait for NVIDIA’s price list response to the release of the X800 & X800 XL.