ATI Radeon 9800 Pro or GeForce 6600 GT

[Damien BRUNET]

Hi,I've got an AMD XP 2600+ processor and 1 Go DDR PC2700 memory. As far as my graphic card is concerned, I've got a GeForce FX 5600.In order to improve framerate and FS2004 quality, which graphic card is the best one to your eyes between an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and a GeForce 6600 GT ?It will be not only for FS2004 but also for Fly! II, X-Plane, TRS2004, Train Simulator, Half-Life 2 and other games.Thank you for your advice.;-)Damien - LFQQ.http://damiendelille.free.fr/Cliparts/Avion.gif

[Tavers]

Go for ther 6800GT. Newer generation, better performance than the 9800 Pro.

[Guest MSR740]

I asked the same question and was answered,have a look at the following thread:Please help with me with that mysery???????????? and the answer was 9800 PRO

[Guest SoarPics]

"I asked the same question and was answered,have a look at the following thread:Please help with me with that mysery????????????and the answer was 9800 PRO."Some confusion here... the OP asked about the 9800 Pro vs. 6600 GT, while John recommeded the 6800 GT. Certainly the 6800 GT is more powerful than the 9800 Pro, but between the 9800 Pro and 6600 GT, the 9800 Pro would still be my choice in this sim and most of the other games originally mentioned. The 6600 GT might be a bit better in Half life, but I'd have to see that to believe it (I don't play the game).Greg

[Tavers]

I actually meant 6600GT :-lol :)We found it to be better performing in benchmarks when testing them at work (When I worked in a PC Store)..However, that being said, in FS they're going to be about equal. Depends on what sort of deal you can find on a 9800 Pro or 6600GT :)

[keenrw]

Hi The GF 6 6600 GT is way faster then the ATI 9800 pro and beats it in about 98% of the beenchmark scores ( if not 100%) i have seen , but in FS things change .. the reason is that the way the two handle Antialisaing in FS .. ATI cards dont AA the clouds were as Nvida cards do so this will slow things down a bit plus there are a few other diffeances too . Flight sim thou is more CPU dependent then GPU so you may not notice a great deal of diffeance in FPS by upgrading the cards but if you upgrade the CPU then it will be like a new sim . I have just brought a GF 6 6600 GT and have not really noticed a great deal of performance increase over my old TI 4400 but i can run the sim at 8 or 16x Aniosoptic filtering now were as i was limited to just 2-4 X on the old card with about the same FPS . Rich

[Guest SoarPics]

"The GF 6 6600 GT is way faster then the ATI 9800 pro and beats it in about 98% of the beenchmark scores ( if not 100%) i have seen..."Not in this sim (show me any benchmarks between the two cards using this sim... that will make my point).While the 6600 GT has better Shader 3.0 support, that technology is wasted on FS9 (basically a DX7 graphics application).From the standpoint of raw processing power the two cards are pretty evenly matched in this sim. But for FS9 I'll still take the 9800 Pro's 256 bit memory bus and not AAing those clouds over the 6600 GT's Shader 3.0 support.GregEdit: Found something at Tom's Hardware. Only at lower resolutions with AA and AF does the 6800 GT have any defineable advantage. Personally I wouldn't want to run this sim at those low resolutions (but to each his own). To say the 6600 GT "is way faster" is streaching things a bit. Both cards are pretty evenly matched in this sim, and when the going gets tough (as in busy areas with weather and at higher resolutions) I'll still take the higher bandwidth of the ATI card.Bottom line... both cards perform well in FS9 and offer great value.

[keenrw]

Hi Yes thats just with no AA and no AF , check the next page with 4xAA and 8xAF enabled , the 6600 GT beets the ATI 9800 PRO in all screen res ,...most people will want to run with some form of AA and AF enabled so i still stand by the fact that the 6600GT is faster in FS then the 9800 PRO. Rich

[Guest SoarPics]

"...so i still stand by the fact that the 6600GT is faster in FS then the 9800 PRO."And certainly you're entitled to your opinion. But when the going gets tough (clouds, busy environment, etc. at high screen resolutions) I'll take the 9800 Pro's more than 50% advantage in bandwidth.We'll have to agree to disagree. :-) Greg

[Guest]

Have to disagree with Greg...Just built my brother a new system with a 6600GT Videocard...and it blows away my 9800Pro in both Flight and Train Simulation! :-)Btw...my processor (Intel) is clocked at 3.2Ghz and my brother's CPU is the AMD64 3200+.

[Guest JimK]

>Have to disagree with Greg...>>Just built my brother a new system with a 6600GT>Videocard...and it blows away my 9800Pro in both Flight and>Train Simulation! :-)>>Btw...my processor (Intel) is clocked at 3.2Ghz and my>brother's CPU is the AMD64 3200+. Personally I see little difference in FS2004 performance between my new BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC and my "old" ATI 9800 Pro, on the same setup (AMD XP 3000+ Barton/1.5Gb PC2700/Asus A7N8X). IMHO one or the other is able to extract the most juice out of the sim. An important consideration however; with its up-to-date technology the 6600 GT is up to par with current games while the same can't be said of the aging 9800 Pro so the 6600 GT is worth the few more bucks it commands over the 9800 Pro.

[Guest Edwin]

I was faced with the same choice a few months ago. My father's video card (a GeForce3 Ti500!) died and when looking for a replacement, I faced the same dilemma: 9800 Pro or 6600GT. I personally use a 9800 Pro but I eventually settled on the latter for my dad as Anandtech had shown a slight performance advantage for the 6600GT.Nevertheless, as I had mentioned on another thread, the mere fact that you can make such a comparison is a testament to how great the 9800 Pro is. Don't forget that the 9800 Pro came out almost (more than?) a year earlier than the 6600GT!Anyhow, if you can afford the (very small) price difference, I would go for the 6600GT because it's a newer card with newer technology. But I still think the 9800 Pro is an amazing card if you take into account its age.Now if only R520 would be released in time! (I'm very close to getting a 7800GTX!) :DEdwin