Advice needed

[MikeSmith]

the 2 cards in question are:

Gainward Bliss GLH GeForce 6800 GS 512MB GDDR3 PCI-X

- 485MHzCore Engine Clock speed
- 512MB 1300MHz high speed GDDR3 memory
- Superscalar 12-Pipe GPU Architecturel
- High-Speed DDR 256-bit Memory Interface
- Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
- SLI Multi-GPU Support
- Memory Bandwidth: 41.6 GB/s

Sparkle GeForce 6600 GT 512MB DDR2 PCI-X

- 500MHz Core Engine Clock speed
- 512MB 560MHz DDR2 memory (hard to determine the speed due to lack of info on most sites)
- DDR 128-bit Memory Interface
- Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
- SLI Multi-GPU Support
- Memory Bandwidth 8.8 GB/s (could only determine this from a seller on ebay ! so may not be reliable)


I figure going off the specs of the 2 different cards that one of those 6800`s would perform better than 2 of the 6600`s running in sli ..

so what would be the best choice simply from a game performance point of view ?

And whateaver one is the best choice , would that card then run games like battlefield 2 , Elder Scrolls Oblivian and upcoming games that are said to be graphicaly intensive on the maximum possible graphical settings on a resolution of say 1024x768 or above ?

Of course no one truely knows about whats games are not out but a reasonable judgement could be made by the right person

2 of the Sparkle 6600GT cards will cost £220 from my local store

1 of the Gainward Bliss 6800 Cards will cost £170 Deliverd from a very reputable if not the best online hardware store n the UK ..

 

[raven_87]

Since I'm limited to picking between the two, obviously the 6800GS.
If you can pick up any other cards, let us know what they are...

 

[angry_ducky]

Raven-
When you say "pending" does that mean that you're going to get the product?

 

[jeremy_pro]

One LION is better than 2 SHEEP right? 😀

 

[raven_87]

@ Ducky

Sorry, forgot to change that.

Its' here...I'll change it tonight and post some of my results in a couple days.

EDIT: Pending for me usually means within the week or a week.
However I could see where somebody would take that as a broad
statement. Technically I have a Dual Core AM2 and R6xx pending....
but I just havent recieved them :lol:

My personal use of that words refers to them being 'en route' to my residence.

 

[MikeSmith]

The 6800GS will wipe the floor with the 6600GT.

would it still perform better than 2 of those 6600 cards running in SLI ?

 

[raven_87]

That would depend on whose using the 6800GS and who has their hands
on the SLI GT's... :twisted:

 

[MikeSmith]

That would depend on whose using the 6800GS and who has their hands
on the SLI GT's... :twisted:

I think you mean if someone was to overclock the 6600`s they could be better ?

If so then there is no overclocking planned but could be an option a bit later on ..

 

[TabrisDarkPeace]

The 6600 only has 8 pipelines, so the 6800 can get twice the work done per GPU clock cycle.

The 6600 only has 128 bit wide memory, the 6800 has 256 bit wide memory, so at equal clock speeds the VRAM on a 6800 will perform far better.

In general the 6800 GT/GS is twice as powerful as the 6600 GT.

Gainward also make decent video cards, while Sparkle have quality problems (IMHO anyway).

A GeForce 6800 GT/GS will also outperform 2 x 6600 GT in SLI with FSAA enabled.... and likely without it too.

560 Mhz x 128 bit / 8 bits (to get bytes) = 8960 = 8.75 GB/sec so they where slightly off. However I suspect if they are the GT model it is actually 17.5 GB/sec.

Tip: MHz x bit width / 8 / 1024 = GB/sec

Two 8 pipeline cards offering 17.5 GB/sec each will not outperform a 12 pipeline card with 40.625 GB/sec, or more, peak video memory thoughput at its disposal. Think about it. 8)

Also:
485 MHz x 12 pipelines = 5.82 Gpixel/sec
vs
500 MHz x 8 pipelines = 4.00 Gpixel/sec

Just like in CPUs, clock speed means jack, it is all about ultimate Gpixel/sec, Shader, and video memory performance.

 

[gomerpile]

Lots of users of sli are aware that most games dont work well with sli although I think that game designers are setting the stage in game desgin for sli.
A 6800 will be stressed from the high ends games but with ocing the card and tuning the os will allow you to play all the games with medium to high quality. I use a 6800 ge I do play all the games with great performance.

 

[MikeSmith]

The 6600 only has 8 pipelines, so the 6800 can get twice the work done per GPU clock cycle.

The 6600 only has 128 bit wide memory, the 6800 has 256 bit wide memory, so at equal clock speeds the VRAM on a 6800 will perform far better.

In general the 6800 GT/GS is twice as powerful as the 6600 GT.

Gainward also make decent video cards, while Sparkle have quality problems (IMHO anyway).

A GeForce 6800 GT/GS will also outperform 2 x 6600 GT in SLI with FSAA enabled.... and likely without it too.

560 Mhz x 128 bit / 8 bits (to get bytes) = 8960 = 8.75 GB/sec so they where slightly off. However I suspect if they are the GT model it is actually 17.5 GB/sec.

Tip: MHz x bit width / 8 / 1024 = GB/sec

Two 8 pipeline cards offering 17.5 GB/sec each will not outperform a 12 pipeline card with 40.625 GB/sec, or more, peak video memory thoughput at its disposal. Think about it. 8)

Also:
485 MHz x 12 pipelines = 5.82 Gpixel/sec
vs
500 MHz x 8 pipelines = 4.00 Gpixel/sec

Just like in CPUs, clock speed means jack, it is all about ultimate Gpixel/sec, Shader, and video memory performance.

thanks for the advice that about seals it

So 1 of those 6800 Cards is better value for money and will result in better quality graphics in games than 2 of those sparkle 6600 cards , thats basicaly what I suspected but needed it confirmed

Thanks all