Real difference between 6600gt, 6800gt, and x800xl?

Waiting on Venice to come out to build new comp, and am debating what the best card will be for my needs.

System so far will probably be:
DFI nf4 SLI-DR
AMD 64 3200+ Venice
Fortron Blue Storm 500 (already have)
2 gigs ram (probably inexpensive value ram to start)

Gaming to date has basicly been EQ, though I plan on checking out WoW, Doom3, Half-Life, FarCry, etc since I will finally have a comp to play them on.
Have never had a current console, so nothing to compare most games to.

My question is: Of these 3 cards (or others perhaps), which do you think would provide the best " bang for the buck" among PCI-E cards?

Money isn't a major concern, though I would like to get the best value. Am not willing to spend the money for the Ultra line, and doubt I will do SLI anytime soon, thought that as a future option would be nice. My current plan is to get this comp built, then work on finding deals ot build a 2nd comp. So if I get a good deal now on a lesser peice of gear, I can wait for good deals (and eventually get my 100posts so hopefully I can buy/sale from here). I do enjoy saving money and would like to avoid overspending as much as possible I did read the <I have $XXX to spend> thread, but it seems a bit older/out of date and since it doesn't compare much between these cards, I figured it would be best to just ask.

I hear from friends who have the 6600gt that it is a great card, but if it is just cutting it and 2x6600gt = 1 6800gt, not sure if the better option is 6800gt, or if i will even notice the difference. In another thread in memory section, a member suggested the x800 line as comparible to 6800gt but less expensive.

Atm, I am leaning to 6600gt just for least expensive, and then upgrading to 6800gt when I am ready to build a 2nd comp and using the 6600gt in 2nd comp, if that makes sense.

Anyways, what would you all suggest? Thank you for any feedback you are able to provide.

its the X800XL if you wanted SLI i Would say 6600gt

so the x800xl does offer comparible performance to the 6800gt, just minus sli (as well as hearing ATI offers better IQ normally?)

Thanks for the reply.

I used to have a 6600GT, and although I loved that card, going to an X800XL was a no-brainer decision for me. 6600GT is the best bang-for-the buck mid range card and the X800XL is the best bang-for-the-buck high-end card.

Ahh, thanks MO. The more feedback I get the more it looks like x800XL will be the card to go with. Seems like it offers great IQ with a smaller pricetag than 6800gt, and since I don't see much need for SLI atm, if I ever decide to go sli I can always pick up current cards then.


As always more feedback/suggestions/experiences are welcomed, and thanks for the ones so far. Hoping to make a solid decision by the end of the week.

xl is better the the 6800gt which is better than the 6600gt. Not if you want SLI, then you are limited to only nvidia and pci-e, in which case 2x6800gt i sbetter than 2x6600gt which is better than the xl.

What is the overclockability of the XL card? As the 6800GT can very often be overclocked to Ultra levels.

the XL overclocks horribly, which is why i would never get one. the XL may be better than the 6800gt at stock, but most all 6800gt's do ultra speeds, which is faster than the XL.
also, the 6800gt has upgradability (sli). The 6600gt is pretty weak in my opinion.

my x800xl overclocks to 450/1140 and with a voltmod would go higher...... I'd pretty much say the two cards (x800xl & 6800GT) are neck and neck after tweaks, with the same other components.

ya from what i've read the 6800gt and x800xl are pretty damn comparible....

pretty much just comes down to preference i guess.....and if your a fanboy for one side or the other...

Ive chosen a 6800GT partially because I reckon it goes well with the Nforce4 Chipset. If I was nVidia I would make sure my cards perfrom extremely well with my Chipset.

6800GT will clock better and be a faster card than that x800xl.

2 6600GTs will be about the same price as 1 GT, and be faster, running in SLI mode, and will also beat out the x800xl.

All the new ATI cards a pretty disapointing. The come out with cards that are not even faster than the Nvidia offereings, and they do it 6 months after the NV68s have been out. Ati is really behind the times, and I wouldn't touch one of their cards now, unless it was free.

{PMS}fishy said:

unless it was free.

Click to expand...

I reckon most people would make an exception if that was the case

Wow, the 6800GT's 256 megs have come down in price alot. When I got my X800XL, the cheapest 6800GT was $325~350, which is why I got my ~$275 X800XL. At $299 for a 6800GT, it really is a crapshoot. One thing to consider is that the X800XL uses less power, but then again ATI drivers have always sucked. I'm not having any problems now, but their drivers have bitten me in the arse and then some. I don't think Nvidia cards run any better on Nvidia boards than ATI does.

I just double-checked............If you're going AGP, it's a crapshoot.........PCI-E, the cheapest 6800GT on Newegg is $365, I still think the X800XL is the better bang for the buck for PCI-E.

MassiveOverkill said:

I don't think Nvidia cards run any better on Nvidia boards than ATI does.

Click to expand...

Was merely a thought. Wouldnt you make your products compliment eachother if you worked at nVidia?

I'd go for the XL, you can save a lot of money on a motherboard by not going SLI, and I'd rather sell of my current card and get a new one than just add another, I think it would be considerably faster.

If money isn't a major issue, I would go with a 6800GT and get a second one later on.

PMSFishy, you are the first person I have heard say 2 6600GTs would be better in SLI than a single 6800GT. Any chance you have a review that shows that?

If I am understanding right, the 6600gt is 128ram and 128 bit only, where the 6800gt is basicly only 256 ram and 256 bit.

I had pretty much crossed the 660gt out as a single card, since even though I hear it runs most of today's games fine, I would like this purchase tolast a while even if it ends up on my bot comp.

So, down to x800xl or 6800gt most likely, just debating with myself if saving money today is better or biting the bullet and getting future expandability. In another thread I see that the 6800gt runs about the same as the x800xl or slightly slower(as a single card) but that in doom3 it really shines.

Go look at some 03 and 05 scores. The 6600GT outperforms the 6800GT by a pretty good margin. A pair of 6600GTs will score around 16k maybe more, my Ultra socres 15.5k, you won't find a GT that will run even close to the speeds Im running at. So it is cheaper, especially if you pick up refurbs, ($150 a card) and will perform a better.

I find it hard to believe that the 6600GT outperforms the 6800GT, especially since its has more ram and is by stock faster...where did you get your reviews???

based upon reading your signature it appears the your wrong is saying Intel > AMD. AMD won the CPU of the year award at Intel's event and whats even more funny is the award given to AMD that says CPU of the year on the bottom right hand side it says sponsered by Intel.....