Mainstream PCI Express Shootout - Radeon X700PRO vs. GeForce 6600GT

Introduction

Just the other week we had a look at a bunch of X600XTs from ATI and we mentioned in our article a number of times about the X700 being available. While we don't have the X700XT just yet we do have the X700PRO which has become widely available by a number of different suppliers around the world.

Today we are going to be looking at how the X700PRO from ATI compares against the 6600GT from nVidia as these are going to be the two hottest cards for Christmas as they are going to be representing the best bang for buck.

We will be benchmarking these PCI Express cards head to head on our Intel 925X system and see just how they compare against each other and which one deserves to make its way into your Christmas stocking this year. Both cards are reference which should place them on an even playing field and give you a good idea on just how the cards will go with a retail package.

With the 6600GT set to support SLI it will be an interesting battle between ATI and nVidia as what might be a little bit faster today could be a lot faster tomorrow when the SLI is setup and operational. While we don't have the chance to test the SLI capability just yet we will hopefully see if the ability of two graphics cards is going to come in handy. SLI is a big plus for nVidia but if you have to spend twice as much to get a little bit more performance then a single card, it won't be worth it.

Before we look at the cards we will have a quick look at what ATI have to say about there X700XT and continue on from there.