6600GT Or X700 Pro? (AGP)

[FrankieL08]

Hey everyone.

Right now, I'm looking to uprgrade my graphics card from my trusty GeForce2 MX400 to something a it more... modern

I'm a bit limited in my choices in that my mobo can only support AGP and with the money I have I've narrowed it down to two cards:
* GeCube Radeon X700 Pro 128MB
* Some sort of 6600 GT (also 128MB)

Note that the X700 Pro must be this model as GeCube appear to be the only brand making an AGP version of this card. Also, I have yet to see a 6600GT AGP with more than 128MB.

I've done a lot of research, including looking at this previous thead:
http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29550
and It *appears* that the 6600GT may be the best bet (PerfectCr's final comment was very telling) but I don't know.

On the one hand, the 6600GT seems to get better reviews and scores but on the other, ATI is supposed to be optimised for HL2 and I've heard it said that NVidia graphics just don't look as 'nice'.

Given that the major use for this card will be playing HL2 and Source (not Doom3) and that both cards are effectively the same price, which one would you guys recommend?

Any help would be much appreciated

[MrxNewb626]

uhh...theres an agp for x700?

[Klyith]

Note that the X700 Pro must be this model as GeCube appear to be the only brand making an AGP version of this card. Also, I have yet to see a 6600GT AGP with more than 128MB.

Yep, the 6600GT only comes in 128mb. It's not a big deal since current and near future games are just fine with 128 as long as you aren't using huge amounts of AA+AF. Which the x700 and 6600gt don't have the horsepower to do anyways.

On the one hand, the 6600GT seems to get better reviews and scores but on the other, ATI is supposed to be optimised for HL2 and I've heard it said that NVidia graphics just don't look as 'nice'.

This is an occasional issue with nvidia cards. Note that it is about 2d not 3d quality, and is about sharpness. Also, if you are using DVI and a LCD monitor it doesn't matter since it is an analog only problem. If you stick with reputable brands for your card you should be fine. (I recommend MSI but they are more expensive. Leadtek is another good name. Many people say BFG is good, but I had a bad one from them.)

Given that the major use for this card will be playing HL2 and Source (not Doom3) and that both cards are effectively the same price, which one would you guys recommend?

If you're going to play nothing but Source games, a x700pro would equal the 6600gt in performance. The thing I wonder about is this AGP x700pro. Gecube is not a maker that I see a lot of. As far as I can tell from the one review of it, it performs worse than a normal pcie x700 pro. I think there's a reason that only one maker is producing these cards. I'd stick with the 6600gt, it's a known quantity.

[dragmor]

Note that the X700 Pro must be this model as GeCube appear to be the only brand making an AGP version of this card. Also, I have yet to see a 6600GT AGP with more than 128MB.

Yep, the 6600GT only comes in 128mb. It's not a big deal since current and near future games are just fine with 128 as long as you aren't using huge amounts of AA+AF. Which the x700 and 6600gt don't have the horsepower to do anyways.

Maybe in the USA they dont sell 256mb 6600GT cards. But in Oz and Asia they do.

Xpertvision has 2 6600GT cards in stock with most Oz stores.
FX6600GTA-C3 128mb, dvi, tv-out etc
FX6600GTA-D3 256mb, dvi, tv-out etc

[spiritwalker2222]

They have the 6600GT's here (Canada) with 256megs but it's 256 megs of DDR, so it's actually a performance drop. I can't remember where I saw them but they are quite rare. I have yet to see one with 256megs or GDDR3.

And yes they don't have the power to use AA... but they are a good card for it's price range.

I'd go with the 6600GT, it's actually cheaper here and performs better.

[NeXus^]

Hey everyone.

Right now, I'm looking to uprgrade my graphics card from my trusty GeForce2 MX400 to something a it more... modern

I'm a bit limited in my choices in that my mobo can only support AGP and with the money I have I've narrowed it down to two cards:
* GeCube Radeon X700 Pro 128MB
* Some sort of 6600 GT (also 128MB)

Note that the X700 Pro must be this model as GeCube appear to be the only brand making an AGP version of this card. Also, I have yet to see a 6600GT AGP with more than 128MB.

I've done a lot of research, including looking at this previous thead:
http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29550
and It *appears* that the 6600GT may be the best bet (PerfectCr's final comment was very telling) but I don't know.

On the one hand, the 6600GT seems to get better reviews and scores but on the other, ATI is supposed to be optimised for HL2 and I've heard it said that NVidia graphics just don't look as 'nice'.

Given that the major use for this card will be playing HL2 and Source (not Doom3) and that both cards are effectively the same price, which one would you guys recommend?

Any help would be much appreciated

What's your system specs? For all I know you could have a pentium 2 and 32mb of ram with that Geforce2mx.. Then it'd be kinda pointless to get a 6600 or x700.

[PerfectCr]

6600GT hands down. If you get the x700 Pro you'll really need to overclock it to get some serious performance out of it. Also check out TR's 6600GT AGP review in the graphics reviews section

[FrankieL08]

Me again!

Thanks for all your help guys, I've decided to go with the 6600GT (not surprisingly).

Perhaps I should have said, I live in Oz and I can get the two cards for roughly the same price: ~$280AU (I can't afford the 256MB 6600GT that dragmor suggested)

Given the frankly enormous performance gap in favour of the 6600GT that's pretty good.

For anyone like me who's interested primarily in Half-Life 2/CS: Source with regards to the graphics card, this review is absolute gold and shows that the X700Pro and the 6600GT perform virtually identically:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/half-life.html

And from there, every single other review I've seen shows that the 6600GT whoops the bejesus out of the X700Pro in every other game.

BTW NeXus^ I didn't put my system specs up because (I hope) they're good enough that they're not really relavant to the choice of graphics card.
* Asus A7N8X-X Mobo
* AMD 2600+
* 768Mb DDR PC3200 Ram
* Seagate 7200RPM 80GB HDD
* 500W PSU

And in case anyone wants to suggest an upgrade, I know I could do slightly better but I spent all my money on the graphics card, so the AMD 64 processor, new SATA Raid HDD and PCIe mobo will have to wait

Thanks again

[Juic3]

6600GT all the way, unless your heart belongs to ATI