New Geforece 6600GT AGP cards

Question

Has anyone installed one of the new Gefore 6600GT cards (AGP...since there's no PCIE on exisiting AMD mobos).
If so...any issues?  Any good comments?
I'm looking to purchase the one out by XFX, but I wanted feed back first.  I know my mobo is sensitive to it's components

Answer 1

Quote
Originally posted by syar2003
The 6600 version with AGP needs a AGP/Pci-e bridge , this makes it
more expensive than the native 6600 pci-e .
Yes, I stated that in my post. But, as I said, I read some reviews that said that the AGP version is supposed to have underclocked RAM to make up the cost of the bridge.  Here's the link:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2277
"The GeForce 6600GT AGP runs at the same core clock speed as the PCI Express version (500MHz) but has a slightly lower memory clock (900MHz vs. 1GHz on the PCI Express version).  By lowering the memory clock NVIDIA helps to offset the additional cost of the PCI Express-to-AGP bridge.  The performance impact of the reduction in memory clock as well as the on-board bridge is between 0 - 5%.  For example, in Doom 3 at 1024 x 768 (High Quality) the PCI Express version of the GeForce 6600GT is 3.5% faster than the AGP version.  There is a performance difference, but it does not appear to be huge. "
Maybe the cheaper RAM isn't enough to make up the cost of the bridge, but I can't believe the bridge is that expensive.  I think they cost more due mainly to much higher demand for AGP.
NOTE:  Also in the same article: "The XFX card is identical to NVIDIA's reference board except for one major factor - it is clocked at the PCI Express 6600GT speeds of 500/1000."  Ah hah!  Will be interesting to see how prices compare when some competitors to XFX come along....