Introduction

6600 GT (center) sits between the 5700 Ultra and GeForce 6800 GT

GeForce 6600 GT and X600 XT

Since ATI’s RADEON 9700 PRO was launched two years ago, gamers and hardware enthusiasts have wanted a cheaper DirectX 9 alternative. Initially the RADEON 9500 PRO was all the rage, as its eight pixel pipeline architecture provided it with fill rate that was close to the RADEON 9700 PRO. This allowed it to perform competitively with the 9700 PRO in the DirectX 7 and DirectX 8 titles that were popular at the time at lower screen resolutions. The RADEON 9700 PRO didn’t really pull ahead until you cranked up the screen res, and turned on anti-aliasing and anistropic filtering. The 9500 PRO just didn’t have the memory bandwidth to keep up in these situations.

NVIDIA and ATI upped the ante with their second generation (NVIDIA’s first actually) mainstream cards, the RADEON 9600 PRO and GeForce FX 5600 Ultra. Enthusiasm for these cards was mixed. The GeForce 5600 Ultra initially launched to lackluster reviews, while the enhanced, second revision GeForce FX 5600 Ultra was perpetually in short supply up until it was replaced. Meanwhile the RADEON 9600 PRO offered little, if any performance improvement over the original RADEON 9500 PRO. Those in the know simply bought RADEON 9500 PRO instead. The follow-up cards, the RADEON 9600 XT and especially the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra were an improvement, but by then gamers were hoping for a mainstream-level card that was built to displace the RADEON 9700 PRO from a performance perspective.

You can see how much longer the 5700 Ultra and 6800 GT are here

Samsung 2.0ns memory

NVIDIA really shook things up with the launch of GeForce FX 5900 XT. By integrating the 5900 core and its 256-bit memory interface on a PCB that was less expensive to manufacture and by using slower memory, the GeForce FX 5900 XT was priced to move at $200. NVIDIA even partnered with a few board partners to throw in a free copy of Call of Duty. The result was a product that delivered an unprecedented price/performance ratio up to that time. ATI was forced to counter by lowering prices on their RADEON 9800 PRO.

Now NVIDIA is back again with another mainstream product that should turn heads: the GeForce 6600 GT. It sports an 8x1 pixel pipeline architecture with a 128-bit memory interface just like the beloved RADEON 9500 PRO, only it runs at much higher clock frequencies, supports shader model 3.0 and NVIDIA’s SLI technology. But the real kicker is its performance: we found multiple cases where the GeForce 6600 GT outperformed former flagship cards like the RADEON 9800 XT!