2 6600 gs or 6800gs

[iceman7311]

hey guys i have one 6600gt in my computer and i am getting really close to upgrading graphics and i need to know what you all think would be a better buy another 6600gt or a 6800gs? i have seen all the benchmarks and they look really close. oh yeah the 6800 gs is only $20 more than the 6600gt. oh and for the 6800 gs i dont think i would want to do much overclocking.

 

[Aprox]

Well, with SLI you need to have two of the exact same cards. They can be different manufactures, but they need to be the same model. So, I think its safe to say, just get a second GT.

You could wait a little bit and buy a 7900GT, I am sure it will perform better than two 6600GT's.

 

[Kush]

i read that they have to be from the same manufacturer? hmm maybe nvidia just said that so you dont complicate things

 

[iceman7311]

i know about the same card thing but which would perform better the two gt's or one 68 gs

 

[ElementalDragon]

Aprox: don't you mean the 7800GT? don't remember the 7900GT's being out yet, and they'll probably cost a bit more than 7800GT's or a bit less than 7800GTX's (that's just a guess....). and i think one 7800GT would perform better than SLi'd 6600GT's.... (nother guess.... haven't really checked on benchmarks, but my 7800GT owns the pants off of my old 6800GT (estimate... due to the fact that i also beefed up the CPU as well...))

 

[LeeJend]

The 6800 GS is a $180 card, the 6600 GT is a $110 card ($139 in AGP version). If they are charging that much more for an SLI 6600GT it is not worth it.

With dual SLI Many games will NOT show a significant improvement. Even at best expect only a 50% gain for going to 2 cards.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/02/vga_charts_viii/page20.html

The 6800 GS is 12 pixel pipelines and 256MB RAM vs 6600 Gt at 8 pixel pipes and 500 mHz. You can get a 6800 GS clocked as high as 490 mHz for about the same price as the standard 425 mHz 6800 GS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

Having said all that I would not go for either. The improvement is not enugh to justify the added cost. Save up for a card that has not been crippled like the GS has swapping clock speed for pixel pipes and shaders.

If you do go SLI-
You did not mention it, but I assume the 6600 GT you already have is SLI capable right?

The two 6600 GT's need to be identical. Same memory clock speed, same GPU clock speed, same RAM size.

Be careful buying different brands. Sometimes the manufacturers run at different clock speeds with different models. It is recommended you run 2 of the same card to avoid compatibility issues, but not specifically required.

Another consideration. Resale value on a 6600 GT is $60 or less. That means your 2 6600 GT's will have less resale value than a single 6800 GS.

If my options were the 6800 GS or the 2-6600GT's in SLI I'd go for the GS. Leaves you with the SLI option open, resale value is better, power consumption is lower. And no "SLI hassles" to deal with (need config files for each new game, there may be compatibility issues, etc.).

 

[Aprox]

Aprox: don't you mean the 7800GT? don't remember the 7900GT's being out yet, and they'll probably cost a bit more than 7800GT's or a bit less than 7800GTX's (that's just a guess....). and i think one 7800GT would perform better than SLi'd 6600GT's.... (nother guess.... haven't really checked on benchmarks, but my 7800GT owns the pants off of my old 6800GT (estimate... due to the fact that i also beefed up the CPU as well...))

You are right, the 7900's are not out yet. In my post I mentioned waiting a little bit to make a purchase. As Leejend said, neither are really a great buy... but if you really want one for whatever reason I think its best to go with the GT.

Oh, and the 7900's will be less than the current 7800 series. The 7900's will be on 90nm and thus be cheaper to manufactuer.

two articles on the subject

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29799
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29821

 

[ElementalDragon]

........wtf......

 

[canadian_divx]

ok just by looking at this one site after some searching.

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/evga6800gs/4.html

a simple comparision is that the 6800GS is in the 5000 range for 3dmark 05. and i have the dual 6600GT in a system of mine and i can get 6100-6200 in 3dmark 05

just a simple comparision but i have found if u can save i would go with a 7 series card which i have been told by the Nvidia rep that they will be comming out in the fall-winter seasons this year.

 

[ElementalDragon]

canadian_divx: that benchmark is showing Pixel Shader performance, Vertex Shader Performance, and Fill Rate. it doesn't say the 3Dmark score.

 

[LeeJend]

Did the benchmark look ups at Future Mark.

6600 GT ~3700 with 500 mhz clock speed
6600 GT SLI ~6200 with 500 mhz clock speed
6800 GS ~5500 with a 450mhz clock speed

So if the game supports SLI mode the pair of 6600 GTs will be 15% faster.

However if you get the 6800 GS now you can still step up to SLI next year and get ~9000 with 450mhz clock speed.

If the price is as close as you said I still recommend the 6800 GS. It gives you more resale value and more growth potential.

 

[ElementalDragon]

or look for a cheap 6800GT.... it performs quite a bit better than the GS. if you can't find a 6800GT.... and don't want to wait for a cheaper 7 series card.... then i guess i'd say go for a 6600GT...

 

[Vanquished]

Yah, I have the 6800 GT and it performs absolutely beautiful... My friend has the 7800gtx and on current games there isn't much of a different
-Jack

 

[iceman7311]

do most recent games support sli? oh and i am reluctent to obuy the gs because i heard somewhere that if will not be produced much longer to push the 7 series. so i might not be able to buy a second gs in a year. for that reason i think i will buy the second gt. oh and one small question at the end. right before i sell these two 6600 gt's in the future i would want to overclock them alot to prolong their ability to get decent fps on the newer games. so i would have to upgrade the cooler on it because the stock cooler isn't that good. i figure might as well upgrade coolers now b/c the price of a cooler probably wont go down. so the question is which cooler cools better between the twon below.


http://xoxide.com/arctic-cooling-nv-silencer-6-revision-2.html

http://xoxide.com/zalman-vf700culed-vga-cooler.html

 

[ElementalDragon]

well..... Arctic Cooling is releasing a new line of coolers for recent generation cards (the Accelero X1 for 7800 and i think 6800..... don't think it does 6600, and the Accelero X2 for ATI's latest cards) which is supposed to be out by the end of February from what i've heard. i've been waiting to buy a VGA cooler for my 7800GT till those two come out, so i can see exactly how well they perform as well. maybe their NV-Silencers will drop a bit in price when the new pair come out? maybe not.... still kinda up in the air, since the new pair of coolers only support the latest of cards.

 

[LeeJend]

Each game has to have a configuration entered for it in the nvidia driver to run with SLI. The newer games usually have the config updates ready when they ship. Older, or less popular games may have to be run in non-sli mode.

You can write your own SLI config for a game and there is a thread around here somewhere with a description of how to do it and links to instructions.

The newer games seem to take full advantage of SLI (i.e. run about 50% faster). Some of the older benchmarks show no improvement in fps or a slight decrease. Again that may be due the config files used.

ROFLMAO. The GS was released in place of the 6800 GT to reduce competition with the 7800 line. The vid card manufacturers (ATI & Nvidia) seem to be trying to get rid of the $200, mid range product and force you into buying the $350-500 cards.

Thinking about this scam I'm glad you are going with the 6600GT. It makes the card manufacturers plan backfire on them.

 

[ElementalDragon]

Lee..... wasn't the GS released to kinda make the GT the new Ultra? last i heard the Ultra versions were the ones they ceased production on.