Head to Head: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 vs. NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Recently a number of users have asked that we compare the $300 GeForce 6800 to the $200 GeForce 6600GT to see if the added cost is truly worth it. Let's find out if it is under Half Life 2:
In our first benchmark the GeForce 6800 manages to only pull ahead in the AA test:
| Half Life 2 AT_canals_08.dem | |||
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT | NVIDIA GeForce 6800 | Performance Advantage | |
| 1024 x 768 | 113.5 | 114.8 | 1.1% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 78.1 | 78.6 | 0.6% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 57.7 | 57.8 | 0.2% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 72.7 | 77.6 | 6.7% |
| Winner | - | - | GeForce 6800 |
Continuing on we have a tie in the at_coast_05 benchmark:
| Half Life 2 AT_coast_05.dem | |||
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT | NVIDIA GeForce 6800 | Performance Advantage | |
| 1024 x 768 | 129.6 | 127.1 | 2.0% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 107.9 | 105.2 | 2.6% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 78.5 | 80.2 | 2.1% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 107.2 | 107.9 | 0.6% |
| Winner | - | - | Tie |
We've got another tie in our third benchmark:
| Half Life 2 AT_coast_12.dem | |||
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT | NVIDIA GeForce 6800 | Performance Advantage | |
| 1024 x 768 | 113.6 | 108.1 | 4.8% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 88.2 | 87.4 | 0.9% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 64.4 | 65.4 | 1.6% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 87.1 | 87.8 | 0.8% |
| Winner | - | - | Tie |
In the Prison demo the 6800 once again outperforms the 6600GT only in our AA test, the rest of the tests are a virtual tie:
| Half Life 2 AT_prison_05.dem | |||
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT | NVIDIA GeForce 6800 | Performance Advantage | |
| 1024 x 768 | 116.1 | 115.8 | 0.3% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 77.2 | 77.9 | 0.9% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 55.7 | 57.5 | 3.2% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 74.6 | 82.5 | 10.6% |
| Winner | - | - | GeForce 6800 |
The 6800 and 6600GT close out our benchmark suite with another virtual tie.
| Half Life 2 AT_c17_12.dem | |||
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT | NVIDIA GeForce 6800 | Performance Advantage | |
| 1024 x 768 | 82.9 | 82.4 | 0.6% |
| 1280 x 1024 | 76.4 | 75.1 | 1.7% |
| 1600 x 1200 | 61.6 | 62.8 | 1.9% |
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 70 | 72.2 | 3.1% |
| Winner | - | - | Tie |
For Half Life 2, it does not seem that the extra price of the GeForce 6800 is worth it - the 6600GT does a fine job on its own and performs just as well for much less.
| Summary | |||
Average Performance Advantage (6800 over 6600GT) | |||
| 1024 x 768 | -1.0% | ||
| 1280 x 1024 | 0.0% | ||
| 1600 x 1200 | 0.3% | ||
| 1024 x 768 - 4X AA | 3.8% | ||
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