XFX 6600 DDR2 & MSI X1300 Pro

Good review.

A DDR2 card seems a wee bit ridiculous considering the XFX 6600GT is DDR3 and can be bought for 119.99 USD @ the egg. Is this new 6600 better than the GT?

And what the fork is wrong with ATi these days>? When are they gonna come out with something as gangster as the 9800pro again? Products like the X1300pro are just depressing...

The 6600 GT is faster than the GeForce 6600 DDR2, I forgot to include that in the value stakes - I'll add something in if I can find a reasonably priced one in the UK.

I left out the US value section, as that section would have been almost as long again!

$117 vs $120 - the GeForce 6600 DDR2 isn't worth considering above the 6600 GT in older games, but it might be 'as fast' in newer games that require more texture memory.

You can get a GeForce 6600 GT for about £100 over here - that's 25% more and you're looking at a whole different league on pricing. OverclockersUK

i think theres a definite market for this sort of card, i think it will be more successfull in the oem sector.

Originally Posted by Nature

And what the fork is wrong with ATi these days>? When are they gonna come out with something as gangster as the 9800pro again? Products like the X1300pro are just depressing...

I'm sure they'll get there...just, maybe they spent too much time designing console chipsets during this generation or something. It really has been pretty sad, I'll agree. I love NVidia's new products, but I am scared of them being the only ones around, as the competition ATI provides certainly improves the quality of their products. Had there been no 9800 pro, we'd all still probably be on 5xxx cards... :p shudder...that's disturbing. That being said, SOMEONE has to be on top...

I think the X1600 Pro would be much better competition for the 6600 DDR2 - the problem is that it is at a price nearer 6800 GS at the moment. (and, AFAIK, you can't buy it yet either)

If they can get X1600 Pro down below £90, I'd be willing to consider buying that over the 6600 DDR2. (that's without seeing the performance of it, first hand)

Originally Posted by Nature

And what the fork is wrong with ATi these days>? When are they gonna come out with something as gangster as the 9800pro again? Products like the X1300pro are just depressing...

I agree, the X1300pro is rather sad... However, it's the low-end X1xxx card being compared to a middle-range 6xxx card. A far more interesting comparison, in my oppinion, would be the X1300pro vs. the 7200, whenever that comes out.

However, with the high-end, I think ATI is doing quite well for themselves. At the moment, the most powerful card in stock on Newegg is... The X1800XT. Newegg has seven different brands in stock, while all four GTX512s are out. nVidia wins the power battle, but their cards are rather hard to find.

I think the 7200 will be faster than the 6600 DDR2, if you consider that the 6800 GS is selling at less than the price that the 6600 GT was when it first came out. ;)

Think the 7200 will be turbo cache like el 6200?

I think there will be a TurboCache model, but there will also be a standard model with memory on it.

Bigz,
I just searched bit tech for an actuall TC article and it's n/a here. Asus is using the 7300TC with all their new lappys.

Does TC really use your system memory? I've been looking round and round for clear info but have gotten alotta grease.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2004/12/15/geforce_6200tc/1.html

There's more performance in this review: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2005/03/09/abit_rx600_pro-guru/1.html

Short answer: It shares system memory, but the amount it shares is dependant on how much system memory you have.

This article brought some confusion upon myself, as soon as I read "ddr" rather than "gddr" being mentioned about the nVidia 6600. From my previous studies, I found that GPUs don't use DDR memory, but GDDR memory. So how is this possible? How can a graphics card use DDR memory?

The card uses GDDR2, but the product is actually known as 'GeForce 6600 DDR2' - I hope that clears things up for you somewhat.