New Nvidia GeForce6600 - SM 3.0 SLI for $199!

E

eXzite

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
144
Check this out:

http://firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=6891

Summary:

At this year's Quakecon (3 days away), Nvidia is going to launch their new chip, a 'mainstream' SM 3.0 card with SLI support for... get this... $199

Here's the kicker: The GeForce 6600 GT scores 8038 on 3dMark 03! (P4 3.2Ghz)
(Edit: That's with just ONE card, just to clarify, not in SLI)

That's right in the same ballpark as the X800 Pro, this is going to be killer. A $199 card that can hold its own with the $399 X800 Pro. AND you can run it in SLI, since the card has native PCIe support.

Not only that, you know this $199 card will be able to run Doom3 without breaking a sweat, because it's going to have the same fast Doom3 shader and shadow volume performance as nv40. So if it scores around the same as x800pro in 3dMark, that probably means faster Doom3 perf with the Nvidia architecture perks. Just think of the possibilities! You could spend $399 on X800 Pro, spend $199 on 6600 and get same (maybe a little faster) performance... or spend $400 on Dual-6600 SLI setup and get something faster than anything else available!
 
Damn, thats what my 6800 scores in 3DMark hehe. Sounds like a great budget card.
 
Pretty cool...now if Nvidia or someone would just get a SLI ready PCIe mobo for Socket 939/940 life would be good..
 
Umm, I got over 10K with my X800 Pro, it isn't even close to the 'same ballpark' as the 6600GT. Also technically, to take advantage of the SLI, you need two cards, so it is more like SLI for $398, or $298. Whatever floats your boat though.
 
Of course you get over 10k remember your cpu is a a64 3500+ and the tested cpus was a p4 3.2ghz so you should get a higher score on your cpu and rig the card should be neak and neak with the x800 if it can truly score 8k on a p4 3.2.
 
The card looks like a good one, but I hate all this talk about SLI when I can't even find a release date for a pci-e amd mobo :mad:
 
Um I get 10K+ with my X800pro and a P4 2.8 so no 8K isn't in the same ballpark. A little overclocking of the card only and I can get 11500. Now that said for that price point it looks like a hell of a good deal.
 
how would that one compare to my 9800 non-pro? i may have to start saving up for the card.
 
mtbaird said:
how would that one compare to my 9800 non-pro? i may have to start saving up for the card.
Click to expand...
fugu said:
is this a 12 pipe card?
Click to expand...
I don't think anyone really knows yet. Nvidia's keeping a pretty tight lid on specifics until Quakecon. My guess would be 8 pipes though, since the 6800's are already 12. Maybe someone who can understand the thread linked to above can comment on this.
 
So what's the semi-current lineup so far?

Low end
nvidia: FX5500 (not really since it's just a renamed, slightly faster over 1 year old 5200)
ati: x300/x300SE (RV370)
the x300 >> FX5500, no comparison

mid-range
nvidia: 6600/6600GT/6800LE (NV43/NV43/NV40) NV43=128-bit memory, NV40=256-bit memory
ati: x600/x600 Pro (RV380) 128-bit memory
It looks like the NV43 models are going to be faster than the RV380

performance
nvidia: 6800/6800GT (NV40)
ati: x800 Pro (R420)
IMO, the 6800GT leads overall

high end (mostly unobtainable without a huge price premium right now)
nvidia: 6800U/6800UE (NV40)
ati: x800XT PE (R420)
IMO, the x800XT PE leads overall
 
pxc said:
high end (mostly unobtainable without a huge price premium right now)
nvidia: 6800U/6800UE (NV40)
ati: x800XT PE (R420)
IMO, the x800XT PE leads overall
Click to expand...

i would disagree and call them equal for now
 
I'm curious about the 6800LE now, too. I hope that card gets introduced at Quakecon, also. I need a video card now, but I guess it might be interested to wait a week or two and see how the 6600/6800LE plays out and what the prices of the 9800Pro's do.

Anyone got a cheapie video card they could donate to me for the time being since my GF2 Ultra just died? :p

Aaron

pxc said:
http://bbs.gzeasy.com/index.php?showtopic=223360

NV43 core, 128-bit memory, 6600GT = 500MHz GDDR3 $199, 6600 = 300MHz DDR1 $149

Nice mainstream cards. :D

If the 6800LE (320MHz core, 256-bit 350MHz DDR1 memory) is still coming out, it's probably a better deal for $199.
Click to expand...
 
pxc said:
So what's the semi-current lineup so far?

Low end
nvidia: FX5500 (not really since it's just a renamed, slightly faster over 1 year old 5200)
ati: x300/x300SE (RV370)
the x300 >> FX5500, no comparison

mid-range
nvidia: 6600/6600GT/6800LE (NV43/NV43/NV40) NV43=128-bit memory, NV40=256-bit memory
ati: x600/x600 Pro (RV380) 128-bit memory
It looks like the NV43 models are going to be faster than the RV380

performance
nvidia: 6800/6800GT (NV40)
ati: x800 Pro (R420)
IMO, the 6800GT leads overall

high end (mostly unobtainable without a huge price premium right now)
nvidia: 6800U/6800UE (NV40)
ati: x800XT PE (R420)
IMO, the x800XT PE leads overall
Click to expand...
Pretty good summary, I would also call the X800 XT PE about equal with the 6800 Ultras. As far as the low end goes, Jen Hsun did say in that interview "...and this quarter we'll have five GeForce 6 GPUs in production, and that ought to cover us from top to bottom." So I think it's safe to say rather soon (this quarter) Nvidia will have something pretty cool to throw up against the X300. I seriously doubt they would leave the embarrasingly slow 5200(5500) in for the value market. They are definately going to get rid of all of NV3X as quickly as possibly and replace it with NV4X across the board.
 
eXzite said:
I don't think anyone really knows yet. Nvidia's keeping a pretty tight lid on specifics until Quakecon. My guess would be 8 pipes though, since the 6800's are already 12. Maybe someone who can understand the thread linked to above can comment on this.
Click to expand...
That's what's strange about it.

The 256-bit 700MHz DDR1 memory (22.5GB/s), 12 pipeline 6800NU gets about the same score. The 6600GT only has 128-bit 500MHz GDDR3 (1000MHz, 16GB/s) memory. If it is only an 8 pipeline card, that implies a huge increase in core speed to make up for the lower memory bandwidth and 4 fewer pipelines.

Unless nvidia did some major mojo with the NV43, I'd assume it's a real 12 pipeline card and not a 16 pipeline card with disabled pipelines (6800LE/6800). The 110nm shrink from 130nm on the NV40 will still make the NV43 much cheaper to produce. A 12 pipeline NV43 would have about 1/2 the area of the 16-pipeline NV40, i.e. about double the number of chips per wafer.
 
hm, if it's 8 pipes i can't see why anyone would want to sli them.... by the time it comes out you could just spend 400 for a 16 pipe 6800gt and probably get more performance that way with just one card and one slot. could just be marketing i guess
 
fugu said:
hm, if it's 8 pipes i can't see why anyone would want to sli them.... by the time it comes out you could just spend 400 for a 16 pipe 6800gt and probably get more performance that way with just one card and one slot. could just be marketing i guess
Click to expand...
Well that's just it, the nv43 is a 110-nanometer process and is therefore clocking at a much higher core clock speed that both the 6800GT and 6800Ultra. So if you have 8 pipes of higher clock, and you SLI with another 8 pipes, you will in fact be running faster than the 6800GT and 6800Ultra, at a lesser price I might add. This is offset by the requirement of the new motherboard and all associated expenses that go along with that.
 
eXzite said:
Check this out:

http://firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=6891

Summary:

At this year's Quakecon (3 days away), Nvidia is going to launch their new chip, a 'mainstream' SM 3.0 card with SLI support for... get this... $199

Here's the kicker: The GeForce 6600 GT scores 8038 on 3dMark 03! (P4 3.2Ghz)
(Edit: That's with just ONE card, just to clarify, not in SLI)

That's right in the same ballpark as the X800 Pro, this is going to be killer. A $199 card that can hold its own with the $399 X800 Pro. AND you can run it in SLI, since the card has native PCIe support.

Not only that, you know this $199 card will be able to run Doom3 without breaking a sweat, because it's going to have the same fast Doom3 shader and shadow volume performance as nv40. So if it scores around the same as x800pro in 3dMark, that probably means faster Doom3 perf with the Nvidia architecture perks. Just think of the possibilities! You could spend $399 on X800 Pro, spend $199 on 6600 and get same (maybe a little faster) performance... or spend $400 on Dual-6600 SLI setup and get something faster than anything else available!
Click to expand...


it doesnt score the same as x800 pro i was just at 10,000 stock...

its a bit faster than a 9800 pro would be correct though..
 
fugu said:
hm, if it's 8 pipes i can't see why anyone would want to sli them.... by the time it comes out you could just spend 400 for a 16 pipe 6800gt and probably get more performance that way with just one card and one slot. could just be marketing i guess
Click to expand...
I think the NV43 has 12 pipelines for the reasons I gave above... a 110nm NV43 with only 12 pipelines should be about 1/2 the size of the current 130nm 16 pipeline NV40.

That would allow a much more modest clock speed, which is good for yields, to be used to make up for the lower 128-bit 1GHz memory bandwidth (as best as possible). I'll make my official prediction for the 6600GT: 400-425MHz, 12 pipelines.
 
I hope you guy are correct. This seems to be a pretty good card for those of us already stretching the budget at around $200, meanwhile we'd get the latest technology.

Do you guys see the 9800pro's price dropping significantly if the 6600GT seems to be as beefy as some might think?

Aaron
 
It will be slightly faster than the 9800 Pro which is its target with a $199 price tag. Expect it to be in between the 9800 Pro and the 6800NU in performance. Certainly not bad at all for all the features it offers and for being relatively inexpensive (anyone remember when $200 became inexpensive?).

I dont see much point in getting a 6800NU with this lineup unless the 16 pipe rivatuner mod turns out to work on the majority of them.
 
that is going to put some serious pressure on ATI - due to nvidias SLI-move they have created some sort of new marked at the extremely high end and should hence establish themselves as unchallenged performance leaders in any benchmarks where the SLI setups surface - a nice and effective marketing/product move. add that to their committment in the CG-arena (with Gelato and their SLIable Quadro FX 4400 series) and ATI will have quite a blow to counter IMHO.

maybe they buy into Alienware's tech :p ? or bring out maxx boards across the whole range? or BOTH :eek: dual maxx boards in an alienware comp for 10k+ lol
 
so when are they going to get around to releasing the dual gfx card capable NForce4 chipsets for AMD processors?

I want my DDE, my amd64fx53, and my sli'd geforces!

pez
 
alex pez said:
so when are they going to get around to releasing the dual gfx card capable NForce4 chipsets for AMD processors?

I want my DDE, my amd64fx53, and my sli'd geforces!

pez
Click to expand...

Supposed to be beginning Q4
 
Nforce 4's are scheduled to come out December/January timeframe. Unfortunately NONE of four Nforce4 boards (Abit, Epox, Biostar, and Gigabyte) that have been shown in tradeshows can do SLI.
 
fugu said:
hm, if it's 8 pipes i can't see why anyone would want to sli them.... by the time it comes out you could just spend 400 for a 16 pipe 6800gt and probably get more performance that way with just one card and one slot. could just be marketing i guess
Click to expand...
*pure speculation* I'm gonna guess that Nvidia will start out with a 12 pipe card for the low end Sli and then bust out with a monster setup with two 16 pipe cards at ultra speeds to fuel interest and get plenty of press from the hardware sites..
 
aight im confused. So Regular conventional mobo's wont be able to take the card or something?
 
diesiel said:
aight im confused. So Regular conventional mobo's wont be able to take the card or something?
Click to expand...

Regular motherboards with a PCI-e slot will take the cards just fine. To run an SLI setup however, you need 2 PCI-e 16x slots, which are not available to date, and are supported on nForce 4.
 
diesiel said:
so only the "newer" mobos willt ake the pci-e slot card?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a relatively new standard, and only recent motherboard chipsets carry support for it. Make sure not to confuse PCI-e with PCI-X, they are two different things. PCI-e, or PCI express, is the one you're looking for (for the very new cards, i.e nv43).
 
eXzite said:
Regular motherboards with a PCI-e slot will take the cards just fine. To run an SLI setup however, you need 2 PCI-e 16x slots, which are not available to date, and are supported on nForce 4.
Click to expand...

correct me if i'm wrong, but i think you don't need two 16x slots. if i remember correctly ppl digged into the trumwater chipsets that were used in the alienware rigs and at least with their tech one is still a 4x - don't know for sure though - and am too lazy to go find the linkage ATM, sorry.
 
wizzackr said:
correct me if i'm wrong, but i think you don't need two 16x slots. if i remember correctly ppl digged into the trumwater chipsets that were used in the alienware rigs and at least with their tech one is still a 4x - don't know for sure though - and am too lazy to go find the linkage ATM, sorry.
Click to expand...

You are correct, the turmwater chipset is actually one 16x slot, and one 8x slot. SLI does indeed function here, but you're not opening up the card to it's maximum bandwidth. Since PCI-e is a packet-switched technology, you could theorectically run both slots/cards at 16x for a boost in bandwidth to the second card. The cards will use as much or as little bandwidth as is supplied by your slots. Mind you, for the near future, I doubt CPUs will be fast enough to use the full bandwidth to the cards anyway, so it won't really matter for a while.
 
eXzite said:
You are correct, the turmwater chipset is actually one 16x slot, and one 8x slot. SLI does indeed function here, but you're not opening up the card to it's maximum bandwidth. Since PCI-e is a packet-switched technology, you could theorectically run both slots/cards at 16x for a boost in bandwidth to the second card. The cards will use as much or as little bandwidth as is supplied by your slots. Mind you, for the near future, I doubt CPUs will be fast enough to use the full bandwidth to the cards anyway, so it won't really matter for a while.
Click to expand...

um...no...there are 32 lanes on a pci-e board...which means if you had 2 x16 slots you wouldn't have any lanes left for any other slots...

SLI is designed to use 1 x16 slot and 1 x8 slot which provides more than enough bandwidth...

And OMG is Nv putting it to ATi...they just aren't letting up...the mid-range was the only place I was still recommending ATi cards...as soon as these hit store shelves Nv will have ATi beat at every single price-point...their only saving grace was the XTPE and that's MIA...
 
^eMpTy^ said:
um...no...there are 32 lanes on a pci-e board...which means if you had 2 x16 slots you wouldn't have any lanes left for any other slots...
Click to expand...

what he said - and hey, empty, with all your brave duty in the nVidia/ATI-warzone you're already a gawd! :eek: holy cow! now if you just hadn't that anti-ATI-ish sig i'd vote you [H]forum-star of the month :D




...dang - and i joined 4 YEARS earlier than you - shame on me ;)
 
wizzackr said:
what he said - and hey, empty, with all your brave duty in the nVidia/ATI-warzone you're already a gawd! :eek: holy cow!

...dang - and i joined 4 YEARS earlier than you - shame on me ;)
Click to expand...

I know...I've been posting like a maniac...I'm steering clear of the warzone from now on though...
 
And OMG is Nv putting it to ATi...they just aren't letting up...the mid-range was the only place I was still recommending ATi cards...as soon as these hit store shelves Nv will have ATi beat at every single price-point...their only saving grace was the XTPE and that's MIA...
Click to expand...

Seeing as how I can't buy either companies mid-range card and this link is all I know about both companies cards, I have one question. Could I borrow your magic crystal ball?
 
wizzackr said:
what he said - and hey, empty, with all your brave duty in the nVidia/ATI-warzone you're already a gawd! :eek: holy cow! now if you just hadn't that anti-ATI-ish sig i'd vote you [H]forum-star of the month :D
Click to expand...

I like his sig. :D
 
If these new cards are announced this week, how soon before they're on the shelves? Are we talking 1-2 months minimum?
 
^eMpTy^ said:
um...no...there are 32 lanes on a pci-e board...which means if you had 2 x16 slots you wouldn't have any lanes left for any other slots...

SLI is designed to use 1 x16 slot and 1 x8 slot which provides more than enough bandwidth...

And OMG is Nv putting it to ATi...they just aren't letting up...the mid-range was the only place I was still recommending ATi cards...as soon as these hit store shelves Nv will have ATi beat at every single price-point...their only saving grace was the XTPE and that's MIA...
Click to expand...

I suppose I stand corrected. The idea is that the cards will use as many channels of bandwidth as they are supplied with, so in theory you really could use 2x16 slots, and just not have any other PCI devices. I see your point though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top