Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

X850 XT PE vs. Dual 6600 video boards


  • Please log in to reply

#1
soujrnr

soujrnr

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 12 posts
Hi Gang,

First off, let me apologize for this post being in two forums. I posted it in the hardware forum first but then thought perhaps it was more suited for this forum. Please don't make me play games on a Commodore 64 for six months as punishment.

I just built two systems that are identical with the exception of the video boards. The system specs for both systems are as follows:

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobos
2 GB DDR 400 SDRAM
350 GB SATA 150 hard drives
CD/R
CD/DVD R/W

One has an X850 XT PE video board while the other one has dual 6600s configured in SLI. Side by side running Half-Life 2, the one with the single X850 is much, much faster at loading the chapter transitions or scene changes than the dual 6600s are. Everything I've read says the dual 6600s in SLI are quicker than a single X850 XT PE. What gives? I'm not sure which benchmark software I can use to check them for video speeds so perhaps someone might also have a good recommendation along that line as well.

I'm not sure if I need to somehow tweak the 6600s for better performance (I know they are great for overclocking) but out of the box I thought I would get better performance with two of them in SLI. Any thoughts from others??

Thanks and have a great weekend!!

Mike
  • 0

Advertisements


#2
warriorscot

warriorscot

    Member 5k

  • Retired Staff
  • 8,889 posts
Well the 6600s only have a combined memory interface and memory as the x850, and they are in a dual config and SLI is not 100 percent efficent(far from it) so you dont get double cause you have two cards. Also the x850 has the advantage of communications not being split between the two cards. And ATI has more slightly better efficeincy when it comes to running HL2 and AA in general.
  • 0

#3
soujrnr

soujrnr

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 12 posts
Forgot to mention....

The system with the X850 XT PE edition is running WinXP Pro with an AMD Athlon 3200+ 64-bit proc. and the other system with the dual 6600s is running WinXP Pro with and AMD Athlon 3500+ 64-bit proc. and so the system with the dual 6600s is actually running a bit faster.

Thanks.

Mike
  • 0

#4
tennisboy

tennisboy

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 202 posts
my opinion rather go with the 850 platnium, not really to fond of sli configs now, they haven't run to many tests on them to show there true capability in the long run
  • 0

#5
jrm20

jrm20

    System building expert

  • Retired Staff
  • 2,394 posts
Ya I would rather go with the x850 xt pe alone rather than the two 6600s. What kind of 6600's are they 6600 gt 256 mb each?

The 6600gt's are still a mid range card because of the 16 Gb/s memory bandwith. If I had the money I would of went with dual 7800 gtx's or 7800 gt's. If you are a ati fan then go with the x1800 xt crossfire that they will be releasing with only 256MB on the crossfire edition.

Edited by jrm20, 13 November 2005 - 05:20 PM.

  • 0

#6
warriorscot

warriorscot

    Member 5k

  • Retired Staff
  • 8,889 posts
They allready have the only thing they lack for the x1800s is a 512md version of the master crossfire cards. But the x1800s are really nifty even the reference cards totally aniahlated the 7800s in benchmarks.
  • 0

#7
soujrnr

soujrnr

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 12 posts
jrm,

These 6600s are GTs with 128 MB each. I just overclocked them and now I want to get some benchmark software to check the difference in speed between baseline and some of the overclock settings.

Good day!

Mike
  • 0

#8
jrm20

jrm20

    System building expert

  • Retired Staff
  • 2,394 posts
Here is a program, they have a free trial with limited functions.



http://www.3dmark.com/
  • 0

#9
comanighttrain

comanighttrain

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 553 posts
ahhh try it on an nvidia game like Battlefield 2 (get the demo if you dont have a copy). I think the Sli will probobly win on that...it [bleep] well should, if it doesnt, then it proves to me that Sli is not efficiant enough.
  • 0

#10
tennisboy

tennisboy

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 202 posts
agree with warriorscot ^_^
  • 0

Advertisements


#11
jrm20

jrm20

    System building expert

  • Retired Staff
  • 2,394 posts
Ya I already know that they have the ati x1800 xl and xt out. I keep up with my knowledge on everything. What I was saying is that it still sounds like the crossfire edition of the x1800 xt will be a 256 Mb version.

Who knows, that might change.
  • 0

#12
warriorscot

warriorscot

    Member 5k

  • Retired Staff
  • 8,889 posts
They are putting off the release of the master crossfire for the x1800 in the 512mb, the 512 will still work in a crossfire as long as you have a master card. They are waiting for the r580s to come out, i think they may be releasing a 1gb version of that card in the master card edtion, so say the rumours but there will definately be a 512mb version and its supposed to be much faster than the x1800s as well so scarily fast cards on the way from ati this christmas.
  • 0

#13
jrm20

jrm20

    System building expert

  • Retired Staff
  • 2,394 posts
ok, I hope nvidia will come out with a faster card than the 7800 gtx in a decent time frame.
  • 0

#14
warriorscot

warriorscot

    Member 5k

  • Retired Staff
  • 8,889 posts
according to their timeline the card that was supposed to ve the rival to the r580 cores isnt being released till next summer. And by that time ATI will be releasing the single integrated super piepline cards, nvidia is going to have to pull something good out the bag. I hope they do competition is good for consumers but ATI have a headstart and are really a full generation of cards ahead of nvidia, mostly through luck and the pay off from years of investing in research and top class engineers.
  • 0

#15
jrm20

jrm20

    System building expert

  • Retired Staff
  • 2,394 posts
I posted this the other day in another post.


Take a look at the 7800 gtx oc 512MB by Bfg tech.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814143044

Core clock 580MHz
PixelPipelines 24

Memory Clock 1750MHz
Memory Size 512MB
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Type GDDR3

On the 512 mb version nvidia decided to up the core clock speed and the memory clock speed. It was going to be called the 7800 gtx ultra, but they decided to keep the gtx name and just raise the memory size to 512mb.



http://www.nforcersh...rticle4423.html


Wow! the memory clock speed is faster than that of the x1800 xt now...

Edited by jrm20, 16 November 2005 - 07:19 PM.

  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP