6600GT AGP back in stock at Newegg

[MassiveOverkill]

Get em while they're hot. They have 3 flavors back in stock........the XFX is still out of stock though.

[The O.C]

so where's the good deal?

[Mr. Perfect]

XFX is in stock. The prices are all still jacked up compared to the PCIe though. We need us some deas on this card.

[MassiveOverkill]

so where's the good deal?

How about this: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-127-150&DEPA=1

VIVO, full copper heat sink covering the RAM and it's $220 shipped. Unfortunately it's not in stock. I may try to sell my XFX to get this card.

[OcLinNoob]

128-bit...? Y not just get the pny 6800 when a sales comes around or on ebay

[Chixofnix]

How about this: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-127-150&DEPA=1

VIVO, full copper heat sink covering the RAM and it's $220 shipped. Unfortunately it's not in stock. I may try to sell my XFX to get this card.


wow... its even got the 1000MHz ram as opposed to the 900MHz variety... the only thing that may be a detriment is the non-reference cooler (which as you point out seems to be completely copper and I imagine its not holding anything back)... but look at the first review I saw on newegg:

OC from 500/900 to 580/1140! this baby rock, Huge copper heatsink cover both GPU and memory, I think that's why it OC so well, comes with rich game and software bundle, also all the cable you need.


umm... the newegg listing says 1000MHz ram, and this dude is saying his started at 900? It's got me wondering... :/

BTW if a 6800nu ever drops down to this price range again would there be any reason NOT to jump on it?

[Zazuk]

I followed the link to MSI (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=NX6600GT-VTD128&class=vga) site and could not find any information on the GPU/Memory speeds.

[MassiveOverkill]

128-bit...? Y not just get the pny 6800 when a sales comes around or on ebay

Well, my 128 bit 6600GT beats your 256 bit 9800pro. My benchmark scores equal that of a stock 6800NU or OC and I get to watch HDTV on mine. Seriously though, I usually only buy at Newegg and the price difference between the 6600GT and the 6800 is about 60 bucks. By the time you hear of sales on the PNY 6800, they're sold out within the first few hours. Waiting for rebates suck too.

[Chixofnix]

see now i'm a bit worried - I'd be willing to pay the 10-20 dollar diff to get the faster ram that'll oc even further - but now i'm not even totally sure its really out there to look for...

i've got nothing against the 6800 vanilla personally... show me another sale for 199.99 and i'll be all over it ^^

[Chixofnix]

update on the 6600gt deals:

the discussed msi - which was my #1 6600gt choice due to the heatsink (which looks like a very solid performer), the otherwise adherence to the reference, and the software selection, is now out of stock...

I'm in a situtation where I need to choose a card within the next 10 hours (I will be sleeping and opening presents for about 9), and so now I've settled on a 6600gt (unless I see a 6800nu fall down to 230 or so), and with this msi gone, and my desire to stick with newegg over my love of their solid history with me - i'm left looking through the rest of their 6600gts

while nothing is at the 215 price point of the now gone msi, the next most attractive card to me is the xfx:

it is 219 before shipping

the software package seems decent (i'll be trying commandos 3 and x-2 at least - dunno about the nascar game but if i get bored we'll see ^^)

there are a solid bunch of reports of this card having ram that can fly past 1000MHz (from its stock 900 clock)...


funny how i hated xfx for setting such a high price point while it was the only 6600gt agp for so long... but then i guess i can forgive them now that they've become of the cheapest since the competition showed up (it was probably the vendors jacking the price up anyway i suppose)...

now i'm crossing my fingers I won't miss another 200 dollar deal the day after christmas ^^

[DEZMOND]

Well, my 128 bit 6600GT beats your 256 bit 9800pro. My benchmark scores equal that of a stock 6800NU or OC and I get to watch HDTV on mine. Seriously though, I usually only buy at Newegg and the price difference between the 6600GT and the 6800 is about 60 bucks. By the time you hear of sales on the PNY 6800, they're sold out within the first few hours. Waiting for rebates suck too.

And his 01 scores beat you, whats yer point ? Doom 3 runs very nice in the pcie version, my friend gets 75 fps with his oc'd xfx, so hopefully the agp models will be just as good.

[MassiveOverkill]

And his 01 scores beat you, whats yer point ? Doom 3 runs very nice in the pcie version, my friend gets 75 fps with his oc'd xfx, so hopefully the agp models will be just as good.

Well if all you care about is YESTERDAY'S titles then I guess you made your point. MY POINT is that the DDR3 fast memory makes up for the lack of the 256 bit interface AND it runs TODAY'S games almost TWICE as fast as the 9800pro with its 256 bit interface.

[Chixofnix]

the big thing for anyone buying an agp card today is this question:

will this card suffice until I make the move to pci-e?

naturally this sort of question has no hard answers, but massive is right in that the focus needs to be on the future - and I would wager that future is measured in months, not years, and not days (unless you like to jump to the new stuff early)...

hopefully my 6600gt will get me by till then... If i find time I may do my own review of my card somewhere in the video sections... - it's very hard to find objective reviews for this card atm...

[twEEkerAreUs]

I am thinking of selling my ATI Radeon 9700PRO to get this Nvidia 6600GT

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-127-150&DEPA=1

Is there a better deal? I can't believe how much free games/software you get and plus being VIVO comes with the cables too. Is this MSI the best one for the price? It's weird though because Newegg doesn't list it in search and I can't find any info on this 8X AGP version.

By the way I only have an 8X AGP Slot too. Chix I have heard there is barely any difference between 6600GT AGP and PCI-E version of the videocard, I could be wrong though. Someone told me the AGP version actually scored better?

[Chixofnix]

someone probably told you about an isolated incident...

essentially the agp and the pci-e are the same cards - the only notable differences are

1)the presence of the pci-e to agp chip on the agp version (can't think of the proper term atm), which causes the GPU heatsink assembly to be 'skewed.' This chip does not affect the performance of the card in any discernable way.

2)while the pci-e 6600gts have 1000MHz ram, the reference 6600gt agp has 900MHz ram. However, you'll notice that newegg.com says all of its 6600gt agp cards (including the msi) have 1000MHz ram. This is NOT supported by the reviews on newegg's website...

here's what I do know on this situation: numerous people have purchased xfx 6600gt agps in the last few weeks (seeing as they were the only ones availiable for a long time) and nobody has been complaining about getting 900 instead of the advertised 1000MHz ram, so it's probably a good assumption that the xfx card does indeed have the faster ram. It's also pretty safe to assume the msi has 900MHz ram, based on two things: the blatant review contradiction on newegg's page, and the fact that MSI didn't even mention ram speed in its tech specs at the official website (see zazuk's handly link a few posts up ;)).

is it even a big deal, whether you get 900 or 1000MHz ram? dunno... haven't seen anyone buy two cards to find out... however we're talking in terms of fps on half life 2 or something, i'd wager its not a big diff... MAYBE 1 or 2 fps... but likely not ;)

[MassiveOverkill]

My XFX came with the 2.0 not the 1.6 RAM modules, but I'm able to clock my RAM at 1150 completely stable. I think it's important to squeeze as much Mhz out of the 6600GT's RAM since it is after all......128bit.

I try to upgrade my computer every six months. If all I have to spend is roughly $200-250 on a new video card each time to beat my old one, I'm a happy camper. I sold my $9800 pro for $150, so the way I see it, I paid an extra 70 bucks to nearly double my performance in today's titles.

[Xenocide]

my xfx clocks at 1.3ghz, i just set it there and looped it, i bet it goes further.

im running the pcie version though

[Mr. Perfect]

All of the reviews of the AGP XFX I've read at sites like Anand's says that it does actually come with 1GHz memory.

[twEEkerAreUs]

Hmmmm interesting. Thanks for all the info, I really like the 6600GT and of course there has to be 50 million different facts/statistics on each videocard Lol. Yeah I have heard about the whole 900Mhz ram deal, bizarre.

[Chixofnix]

I am thinking of selling my ATI Radeon 9700PRO to get this Nvidia 6600GT

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-127-150&DEPA=1

Is there a better deal? I can't believe how much free games/software you get and plus being VIVO comes with the cables too. Is this MSI the best one for the price? It's weird though because Newegg doesn't list it in search and I can't find any info on this 8X AGP version.


sorry i didn't respond to these two questions earlier... lemme see if I can wrap up your questions (with what knowledge i have - i don't make these cards for a living or anything...)

1) Is there a better deal?
If we're talking about the msi agp 6600gt in particular... it's 215.00 atm on newegg, and I haven't yet found a lower one for the msi... the next best price I found was 215.46 here (http://www.pagecomputers.com/cgi-bin/page/T0905882.html).
That etailer seems to have a decent rating, but hey if newegg's got the lowest you really can't go wrong with them ;)

If you find an MSI for less somewhere else in the future, I'd keep in mind that barring something like a 20 dollar diff, I have been and will continue to be willing to pay a bit extra to buy from newegg - they're so great about replacing defective stuff I never even think twice anymore about the issue of RMAs when I know I'm ordering from newegg... there's a lot of peace of mind I think I get with these guys.

2) Is this MSI the best one for the price?
though i'm not certain exactly what this is asking, I'll assume you're asking if the MSI card is better relative to others around its own price range, but if not I think I answered your question in answer #1 :)
so... Is the MSI 6600gt agp the best buy if you're spending something around 215 dollars? Well let's look at two alternatives (these are all 6600gt agps)(btw every price and number in this post is accurate as of when I looked it up while writing this - I'll try to provide links so you can check for yourself in the future to be sure...):

keeping in mind the big strengths of the MSI are the software package, and the large copper heatsink (which I'll bet is pretty significant)....

a) the XFX 6600gt agp currently costs 215.71 at pagecomputers (http://www.pagecomputers.com/cgi-bin/page/M1525406.html) (though I personally would recommend shelling out the 3 and something extra to get it at newegg). as I and Mr. Perfect indicated earlier (and I will know for sure when I get mine in the mail and post here), the XFX seems to be a sure thing if you want to get 1000MHz over the reference 900MHz memory that should be on the agp versions of the 6600gt (note the pci-es all have 1000MHz). Again, I'm not sure if this is even worth making a decision over, but I'll find out the diff between 900 and 1000 in my system when my card comes if it'll settle the discussion ;). The XFX comes with Nascar Thunder (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/driving/nascar2004/review.html), X2: The Threat (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=348) (note the linked game review is a space fighter...? I'm not sure if this game is related to the x-men movie...), and Commandos 3 (http://www.gamershell.com/reviews_Commandos3Review.shtml). Word has it there aren't many XFX cards that can't pull of at least a 100MHz overclock on the ram... I'm not familiar with the GPU's potential however (though I can say I haven't seen any amazing GPU overclocks out there yet - I woulda remembered ^^). Something that would definitely turn the heads of those of you with an LCD or two is that the XFX seems to be unique in that both of its monitor ports are DVI - which can only be a good thing for you fellas, right?

b) the APOLLO 6600gt agp is currently 225.00 at newegg (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=14-140-048&DEPA=1), and it has a few notable features worth... um... noting... yeah. the heatsink on this puppy is MASSIVE (relative to the others)!!! and a little odd looking to boot! but frankly bigger is often better in the world of heatsinks (bigger surface-area would be a better way of putting it I suppose), and a close inspection of the pics on newegg shows that it also channels air across the top of the ram (albeit not arctic cool, after passing through the heatsink, but its certainly a better thing than air standing still). The apollo comes with an unusual s-video to analog cable (which I'm sure I would use), and the following software: Arx Fatalis (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/arxfatalis/review.html) - an interesting looking FPS RPG, one of those infamous "gaming pack" cds (either demos or lame stuff, more than likely), and windvd creator (something like nero, with dvd burning as well, as far as I can tell).
here's an unusually informative review on newegg:
Well, the first thing that will annoy you when buying this card is that the clock speed on the memory is actually 900mhz, not 1000mhz like apollo is listing here. Honestly though, I was not shocked by any means when I got mine and noticed that, I have heard about it happening with most other brands as well. If that 1000mhz mem clock was important to you, ocing is clearly not a problem for this baddy, and you will see your 1ghz+ mem clock with little problem.
so it seems a sure thing that this card (again with newegg saying it has 1000) actually has 900MHz ram, but i'll reiterate... this may not even be a big deal (and evidently this guy can clear 1000 pretty well - though he doesn't give a specific number)...

3) on finding info (I assume you mean specs) for the MSI: well it would seem everyone keeps reading over poor zazuk's post!! here's the super-handy link he provided again: click here to hear a mouse click! (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=NX6600GT-VTD128&class=vga) (and if you're looking for "official" ram speeds - they haven't been found yet)

i'd write more, but nobody's paying me for it/this is taking a while/I'm hungry... sooo hope it helps you guys ^^

[twEEkerAreUs]

Thanks Chixofnix! Very helpful, I did come across that spec sheet at MSI but wasn't sure if it was 100% correct for the AGP 8X. Interesting to hear that a lot of the 6600GT are in fact coming with 900Mhz Ram instead of 100Mhz Ram.

OCING any of them doesn't seem to be a problem though. Anyway thanks for the lengthy post and taking some time to type it :clap: