6600GT VS. 9800 PRO

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 10:33 pm

Thought I should start a new thread for this since the question is no longer "who are they". It seems I can get either card for around 180 so that brings up a many questions in my mind.
1. Does the 256 bit memory interface of the 9800 add a substantial difference for gaming?All I do is game on my machine so that is my main concern.
2. If the answer to #1 is yes then how is it people are getting,from what I hear, better performance from the 6600GT?
3. The 6600GT says it has DDR3 does the 9800 Pro use DDR3 as well?
4. Is Leadtech a good brand for Nvidia cards? never owned an Nvidia card.
5. How do the two VPU's compare?
6. How much difference would the extra 128 megs of memory that the 9800 PRO has make in real life.

Sry for all the questions here but I have never owned Nvidia and 180 bucks is a lot for me so I cant make the descision lightly. Thanks

shwA · Post by **shwA** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:04 am

Just to get things straight, the 6600GT has 128MB of memory while the 9800PRO you're looking at has 256MB?

A friend of mine seemed to like his 6600GT better than the 9800Pro, but another friend felt the opposite. Personally, I have a Mobility 9800Pro...it does pretty good with most games. Doom3 and CS:S are playable (not GREAT, but playable). I've never actually used a 6600GT, so I can't really help you there.

Zelig · Post by **Zelig** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:16 am

I've got both cards, in different rigs. (both 128Mb versions)

The 9800 pro fares a bit better at high resolutions (1600x1200) with AA/AF, but neither card is very good at pumping out the frames like this anyway...

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 8:24 am

shwA wrote:Just to get things straight, the 6600GT has 128MB of memory while the 9800PRO you're looking at has 256MB?

A friend of mine seemed to like his 6600GT better than the 9800Pro, but another friend felt the opposite. Personally, I have a Mobility 9800Pro...it does pretty good with most games. Doom3 and CS:S are playable (not GREAT, but playable). I've never actually used a 6600GT, so I can't really help you there.

Merlin is talking about the memory interface not the momory on the card, 2 totally different things................

256 BIT vers 128 bit, that's like compairing the memory band with of single channel Intel against dual channel AMD. Who do you think wins there???????????????????

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 2:18 pm

Ok I guess I need to be a bit more specific. Here are the stats for the two cards I am considering. I dont just want to hear personal oppinions about which is better. I have had numerous Ford VS. Chevy discussions. I am hoping to learn something here.

ATI 9800 PRO 256: Core clock 380, Memory clock 680, memory interface 256bit, Memory type DDR2, memory amount 256 megs, open GL 2.0 compliant Retail price 159.00

Gigabyte GeForce 6600GT: core clock 500, memory clock 1000, memory interface 128bit, memory type GDDR3, memory amount 128megs, open GL 1.5 compliant.

Now my problem is I don't know what DDR2 or GDDR3 are as compared to regular DDR, I also don't know,since I can't find it on their sites, what the VPU cores are for these cards and what they can do. It seems to me that the memories are near the same except that the Radeon has a 256bit interface with the VPU so it "should" have better communication with the core so the 500 mhtz core of the 6600 is wasted because the data can't move from the memory to the VPU as fast as the VPU can process it. I don't know but I want to learn so that next time I go to buy one I don't have to ask soo many questions. All teh vendors have peoples oppinions posted everywhere and I have come to rely on you guys to give me the facts to back up those oppinions. I trust you all enough that if Bio-Hazard told me to buy a 9800PRO I would but I would like to know why.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:37 pm

GeForce 6600 GT = 8 piplines 128bit mem

9800 = 8 pipelines 256bit mem

basically they both can take in 8 seperate bits of data @ 1 time

clock for clock 128bit is 2x slower than 256bit (in theory anyway)

eg. 100mhz 128bit = 50mhz 256bit

gfx cards need lots of memory bandwith ( nvidia 7800 has upto and over 40GB/sec bandwith)

So all the extra bandwith the ati can provide will be noticed

you can't compair mhz in gfx card GPU's, as ATI and Nvidia process the data differently

DDR is older double data rate ram (still used on your motherboard!)
DDR2 makes changes to allow higher frequencies and lower volts
DDR3 is same as above
someone else can explain the exact differences, but i can barely understand myself.

ATI would be the way to go, I had 9800XT (overclocked version of that card), and was sweet

256MB of ram will also help alot with doom 3 and newer games!

allenpan · Post by **allenpan** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:08 pm

lol are u high?? 9800 will die in new game compare to 6800 or 6600

ddr 2 and 3 are major difference, first in voltage and latency and timeing and most of all headroom for freqency

DDR3 has major advantage over DD2, on heat and chips need it

if u wanna play DOOM3 high detial u must go for Nvidia card, ati sux @ Opengl game, beside R9800 is old technology no pint

btw u can get 256MB 6600 too

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:49 pm

i should have said that YES Nvidia rock under opengl, like doom3, But 9800 IS better all round!

I'm not a ati fan boy! (thats before anyone jumps in)

He is talking about a 128MB 128mbit card vs 9800 256MB 256mbit card!
9800 is not that old, the Nvidia card HE IS TALKING ABOUT is crippled!

when the new unreal engine, and other new game technologies come into games, these cards won't stand up much

lol are u high??

in regard to DDR1/2/3 - they all do the same thing - my last post said

DDR2 makes changes to allow higher frequencies and lower volts

DDR3 is same as above

higher frequencies = performance?
frequencies are better than latency, all new cards are ddr3, what i was trying to say in last post is

DDR2 makes changes to allow higher frequencies...

lol

[edit]
I tend to go on when i have a few beers
Merlin, Hope i made SOME sence!

Zelig · Post by **Zelig** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 8:51 pm

Check out these benchmarks comparing the two cards.

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:58 pm

First problem here is that you're reading Crappy old Toms site (totally sucks and it's BIASED).
Doom 3 is a boaring game in the first plase, I finished it in under a week and no replay value..............

And ATI cards rock with the Unreal enging..............

Zelig · Post by **Zelig** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:24 pm

Bio-Hazard wrote:First problem here is that you're reading Crappy old Toms site (totally sucks and it's BIASED).
Doom 3 is a boaring game in the first plase, I finished it in under a week and no replay value..............
And ATI cards rock with the Unreal enging..............

I'm fully aware of issues that TH has... however, benchmarks don't lie, that was just the first 6600gt vs. 9800 pro benchmarks I came across, feel free to search for some others if you want.

I just fixed the link, so it actually goes where it's supposed to... there are more than Doom 3 benchmarks, there are quite a variety, including UT2K4 which is mostly CPU limited though.

Like I mentioned before, I've found the 9800 pro will often perform somewhat better at high resolutions with AA/AF, but it doesn't have enough of a boost over the 6600 gt under these circumstances to make the games any more playable.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:47 pm

Let me state what I understand so far. IF 256 BIT memory is basically twice as fast as 128 BIT in terms of data transfered then the 9800 card translated into 128 bit would have a Memory speed of 1360Mhz (680x2) vs the 6600 GT's 1000Mhz.

The differences between DDR2 and DDR3, from what I now understand, is that DDR3 ALLOWS for higher speeds at lower voltages thus less heat generated.

With that having been said the fact that DDR3 has higher POTENTIAL speeds really means nothing IF the card doesnt take FULL advantage of the POTENTIAL. It seems to me that 256 Mb of DDR2 at 1360Mhz would be able to process more data then 128 Mb of DDR3 at 1000Mhz.

If I have oversimplified here please correct me. So if all the above is true then the Radeon 9800 Pro has better memory performance than the 6600 GT so the question then becomes how the two different Cores stack up.
I would assume that since the Radeon card has a 256 BIT memory interface that the Core is a 256 BIT core wich would mean that it can basically process data equall to double the rate of a 128 BIT core at the same speed. So the 6600GT has a Core speed of 500Mhz@128 BIT while the 9800 PRO has 380Mhz@ 256 BIT which would be 760Mhz@ 128 BIT.

IS the BASIC science correct here or am I off?? It sounds to me like I am comparing an Intel P4 2.2Ghz to an AMD Athalon 64 2.2Ghz each with close to the same memory.

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:47 am

just found this http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2277&p=3

it looks like the 6600GT wins some times by abit sometimes not by much but it looks like the better buy.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:36 pm

I was unable to determine from what they had whether or not the 6600GT tested was an AGP card or a PCI-e. Also the card I am looking at is the 256 Mb version of the 9800 Pro while the card tested was a 128 Mb version. I wonder how they compare. Doesnt the 9800 Pro 256 use the R360 core while the 128 Mb version usaes the R350??

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:12 pm

They were using both AGP

Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
R350/R360
0.15 Micron

Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB
R350/R360
0.15 Micron

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?lo ... =88&var2=0

Yair · Post by **Yair** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 5:44 pm

when i researched about this a while ago i reached the conclusion that 6600GT is better

and yet i ended up buying 9800 PRO simply because it feats my vga silencer

here is just the first one i found in google
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvi ... /page4.asp
there are a lot of those just search for something along the lines of
"9800 pro vs 6600"
"9800pro vs 6600GT"
"6600 GT vs 9800 pro"
"6600GT vs 9800pro"
.
.
.

Antonik · Post by **Antonik** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 7:50 pm

get an x800 for 170$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814125171