X-bit labs

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT Assaults Mainstream Gaming Market

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Tim Tscheblockov, Anton Shilov

[ 09/07/2004 | 05:39 AM ]

Despite of not being the most highly-anticipated graphics processor of the year, the NV43, also known as the GeForce 6600, delivers just everything you would expect from a mainstream graphics card with some proof for the future: powerful architecture, support for Shader Model 3.0 and great thermal and power consumption characteristics. But how well does it perform in modern games?

Table of contents:

• Introduction
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• A Few Words on the Optimizations and Image Quality
  
• Tests
  
• First Person 3D Shooters
  
• Call of Duty
  
• Doom III
  
• Unreal Tournament 2004
  
• Halo: Combat Evolved
  
• Far Cry
  
• Painkiller
  
• Counter Strike: Source Beta
  
• Next-Generation DirectX 9 Game 1
  
• Next-Generation DirectX 9 Game 2
  
• Third Person 3D Shooters
  
• Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
  
• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
  
• Hitman: Contracts
  
• Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
  
• Thief: Deadly Shadows
  
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
  
• Simulators
  
• IL-2 Sturmovik: Aces in the Sky
  
• Lock On
  
• Colin McRae Rally 04
  
• Strategy games
  
• Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
  
• Perimeter
  
• Semi-synthetic Benchmarks
  
• Aquamark 3
  
• Half-Life 2 Stress Test
  
• Synthetic Benchmarks:
  
• Futuremark 3DMark03
  
• Conclusion
  
• GeForce 6600 GT or RADEON 9800 XT?
  
• GeForce 6600 GT: the Ideal Graphics Processor?
  

Introduction

This review is a continuation of our all-around tests of the GeForce 6600, the new mainstream graphics processor from NVIDIA Corporation. Earlier we examined its technical characteristics and capabilities, described the reference graphics card based on the GPU, and carried out theoretical tests. If you’re interested in that review, follow this link. In brief, we found the new GPU from NVIDIA an excellent solution on that first approach, as it left no chance to mainstream GPUs of the previous generation and sometimes challenged its top-end representatives.

The second part of the review is going to be concerned with testing NVIDIA’s new offer in a selection of modern gaming applications. It’s no secret that games are the main area of application of consumer graphics cards, so we think that games must be also used to benchmark them. We are using many games of various genres for our tests to be the most representative of a graphics card’s performance. And as we’re benchmarking modern graphics processors, we must certainly include the most visually advanced games that would employ all of a GPU’s features and capabilities.

In this testing session we tried our best to stick strictly to the aforesaid rules. Various game genres are all represented, with a handful of new popular titles, among which id Software’s new creation, Doom 3, stands prominent – we even dedicated a separate review to this game. We used a new version of the popular multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike called CS: Source. It has a status of beta version so far, though. And we also employed a new synthetic test based on the engine of the upcoming Half-Life 2 that mostly boasts various pixel shader based effects.