Nvidia 6600gt vs Raidion 9800pro

Ok, here is the deal, I just bought a PNY Nvidia 66oogt video card to use in place of my Radion 9800pro AIW (going to use the 9800 in another machine) and here is my observation. The 6600gt and the 9800pro seem to be almost exactly the same performance wise running SL. They are both excellent for running SL and the graphics are gorgious when you crank up the AA and AF filtering. Now the bad news, niether is perfect.

To be honest the 9800pro AIW is the better card as far as every day use. The 2D seems smoother and with the added features of the 9800 All in Wonder like TV, video recording etc etc the Radion is an excellent card. Problem is it constantly crashed on SL. Averaged once an hour of gametime. Bothersome but not terribly so.

The Nvida card is a game card, it has dual monitor support where the 9800 refuses to allow anything other than a TV (it won't even coexist with another PCI video card ) be connected. It does post somewhat higher scores on 3D Mark 03 benchmarks, it doesn't seem to make that much difference running SL. Neither card can run with everything turned on and maxed out, local lighting seems to effect them both the same and not much diffent than my Ti4200 to be honest. Upgrading my AMD 2600+ would likely have a bigger influence on that anyway.

Since both cards cost roughly the same. I couldn't pick a clear winner. I suppose the 6600gt would win out if all you wanted to do was play SL crash free (relitvely speaking as I have crashed with the 6600gt but twice a week compared to 5-10 times a day) but I would not recommend changing cards if you have the 9800pro already as performance is roughly equal. It might cure fequent crashes for some folks and they still bring a good price on ebay so you might get away with a crash fix for $50 and a slightly faster card that will play Doom3. If you aren't having crash problems stick with the 9800 and consider a faster processor, more memory plus a fast MB.

Nvidia, definitely!

All benchmarks I saw showed this above the 9800. Plus the Radeon series is borked with SL.

Yeah, the Nvidia does have higher numbers but not enough to write home about compared with the 9800. 3D mark03 numbers for me are around 6100 for the 9800 and 7100 for the 6600gt with the settings the same. Translates to about +10 fps on Battle of Proxicon, the difference between 35 and 45 fps (on my machine, YMMV) isn't enough to justify the expense.

The crashing issue just may be though.

I have a Radeon 9800 Pro and I'm not experiencing these crashes you're talking about. I mostly crash in a certain area within SL, but I hardly ever crash anywhere else. I'm not going to say what the cause of all your crashes with the 9800 is.. because I simply don't know, but I just wanted to let you know that there is someone with that card who isn't experiencing all those crashes :>

It's possibly another issue while using the card.. like amount of CPU ram, type of motherboard, or something.. just not sure if it's the card itself because of my lack of crashing with my current setup.

I have a Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB. Can someone give me advice on how adjust diplay settings? I've been having problems with lag, freezing and crashing and I'm wondering if maybe I don't have the settings wrong. In reading some of the other threads about display settings, I read something about AGP being greyed out and mine is. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

There isn't really much that can help with most of the crashing problems with the 9800pro that I know of. My advice is to make all your settings to performance in the cards settings. The game settings didn't seem to make a difference really. Make sure the local lighting is turned off. That seemed to slow the crashes down some. I ended up changing to an Nvidia card due to the problems I had.

Also, remember that video cards don't matter anywhere near as much as processor speed and system RAM when running SL. In something GPU-bound like Doom 3 or Unreal 200whatever, though, the difference is incredible.

Catherine's right; many systems can be processor-limited as much or more than they are graphics-card limited. Texture memory can make a big difference as well in Second Life (as many designers upload really big textures for much of their builds).

Also, AA and AF (antialiasing and anisotropic filtering) should always be set to "application Preference) within ATI's and nVidia's control panel for maximum Second Life stability.

aha!

Setting to performsance does exactly that, it sets all the peramiters to application preference. What is irritating about using the 9800 pro is with all the power it has, you can't turn on the goodies that you paid for. I have been using the 6600gt for a month now and it works great with the AA and AF filtering turned on and few, if any crashes.

Yeah... what follows is *merely* my wacky personal experience, but I have had the "Application-controlled" box checked OFF for several months now in order to use 2xQ (Quincunx) Antialiasing, and I HIGHLY recommend it. Here's why:

-haven't noticed more crashes as a result of this
-doesn't run too much slower
-OMG THE SCREEN LOOKS SO FREAKIN' SMOOTH!!!

^AWESOME and recommended for taking snapshots, and heck, experiencing your Second Life. The day I turned this on, I bopped up to Char in Brampton and shared my experiences with her while I watched her build a stage. I was out of my freakin' mind... I was like:

OMG!!! THIS IS LIKE A WAKING DREAM, CHAR! IT'S SOOO SMOOTH!!!

And then proceeded to take pictures of us, all smoothy-goodness. Snapsnapsnap.

One downside: text may be too blurry for your taste. But I like the gelled approach, like the luster of douce satin.

If you can use higher AA/AS modes, experiment with 'em. Give 'em a try. Maybe stuff will pan out kewlies for you.

Remember that the 9800 Pro is a good 1 to 2 years older than the nVidia 6600. The 9800 is bound to be a slightly lower-performing card in that matchup.

Against an equal-age graphics card from nVidia (like a GeForce3 or GeForce4), the 9800 would win hands-down.

As for crashes... well... all you can do is scream at the manufacturers to support OpenGL properly!

Take care,

--Noel "HB" Wade
(Tread Whiplash)

I'd go w/ the nVidia card.

Just my two cents:

I don't think I'm going to be getting any more ATI cards. I've got an OEM ATI 9200pro. It was $75 when I got it. I guess I was tryin' to save a few bucks cuz these cards aren't what I consider cheap.

Lessons Learned:

1. Game producers make games to work with NVidia, and they try to support ATI.

2. If you want a good video card, you are gonna hafta bite the bullet and just pay for it. If you try to get a bargain, you aren't likely to be happy with what you get.

The reality is.. processors and RAM aren't the most expensive upgrades any more.