AGP Graphics card conundrum

[RIzz23]

hi guys,

im using a quite an outdated nvidia geforce 6600LE low profile agp graphics card, i wondered if the same geforce 6200 low profile agp card was better? to be honest i dont know anything about graphics cards so what does LE mean anywho? i have a standard old pci slot behind my agp slot in a shuttle case, ive heard pci is not superior to Agp (excluding pci expres i guess?..) Any help would go greatly appreciated

[mehmeh]

PCIe was/is the replacement for AGP, don't know the technicalities of it all, but lets just say its faster/better and allows for things like multiple card setups (SLI & Crossfire) on supporting motherboards.

IIRC "LE" was the stripped down, "light" version of the 6600, basically a gfx card company, in this case nVidia produce a chip and then tweak its performance, so they can sell it at several different price points. Your 6600LE would of been at the lower end with the 6600GT at the higher end (in recent months its got a hell of alot more confusing and the lines of performance v price have got very blurred for Nvidia, but thats for another thread )

In all honesty it depends what you want to do with your computer?, but upgrading to a standard 6600 would see very little, if any gains in performance. What are your system specs btw? And does the card have to be low profile?
The highest you can go on AGP would be with AGP versions of the nVidia 7800/7900 series or Ati 38** series any of those would give you a considerable boast in performance, but you'll be looking at secondhand and paying a premium over the PCIe equivelants. You may also find lesser versions of those cards/generation available low profile, but the question becomes how much do you really want to spend before it may be just aswell to have a proper allround upgrade?

HTH.

[Antagram]

If it's the same as the 6800 series, it will be pipelines and pixel shaders disabled to reduce performance and price point. You might be able to re-activate them if not hardware disabled.

I used this guide when I had a 6800LE, and it was fully unlockable.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My main computer used to be a SN41G2 and it could take a normal sized AGP card as long as it was a single slot one. You could use a double slot card but you needed to remove the outer case.

It also had the 250w PSU too.

I had an unlocked 6800LE in mine. I was lucky enough to get one which unlocked fully(16 pipelines and 6 vertex shaders)!!

Here are some more details about the Nvidia 6 series:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_6_Series

The 6600LE has half the pipelines of the 6600 or 6600GT. It has the same number as the 6200 BTW which means similiar performance. However some of the earlier 6200 cards could be unlocked to a standard 6600 as they were artifically disabled 6600 cards.

There is also a dedicated Shuttle forum at www.sfftech.com which is the biggest one IIRC!

[Pob255]

LE versions were Light editions, as has been said, the reason they came about was failed chips.
ether ether some of the pipes were failed or they could not support the full speeds.
However it gets more complex as the failier rate would vary between batches so some times fully working chips would get downgraded simply to meet supply targets.
How many pipes are working and what speeds you can get out of it will vary by luck of the draw.

I had a 6800le where only 1 pair of texture pipes was bad and it overclocked very well.
Also leadtek the makers of that card just made one cooler, designed for the 6800gt but also put on the plane 6800 and 6800le

you're best bet is look for a 2nd hand ati hd3xxx series

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I wonder if I got lucky with my 6800LE then?? I bought two and one unlocked to 12 pipelines and 5 vertex shaders and the other to 16 pipelines and 6 vertex shaders. Luckily I managed to sell the 12 pipeline one for more than I originally paid because of its extra 4 pipelines!!

The 16 pipeline version overclocked to around 325mhz to 350mhz for the core and around 780mhz to 800mhz for the RAM IIRC so I ended up with an underclocked 6800GT!!

It was a good upgrade from an ATI 9500pro!!

[scaryjim]

The real issue with upgrading on AGP is the premium. Scan currently have a 3650 available at £61 AGP vs £47 PCIe, and a 3850 at £94 AGP vs £67 PCIe. So for the price of a last generation AGP card you can basically buy a current generation equivalent (4670 / 4830) with much better performance.

There comes a point where the saving you make by upgrading (rather than replacing) a system no longer justifies the performance compromise you have to make, and I'm afraid AGP has probably hit that point. Unless you only have £70 to spend and you absolutely *have* to have better graphics performance *now*, it makes far better sense to save up for a new system.

[Pob255]

The real issue with upgrading on AGP is the premium. Scan currently have a 3650 available at £61 AGP vs £47 PCIe, and a 3850 at £94 AGP vs £67 PCIe. So for the price of a last generation AGP card you can basically buy a current generation equivalent (4670 / 4830) with much better performance.

Yep that why I said 2nd hand was the best option.
You should be able to pick up a high end 7series (7900gs or better) or ati x1xxx (x1900pro or better) or 3xxx (3850 would be best) cheaply 2nd hand

I wonder if I got lucky with my 6800LE then?? I bought two and one unlocked to 12 pipelines and 5 vertex shaders and the other to 16 pipelines and 6 vertex shaders. Luckily I managed to sell the 12 pipeline one for more than I originally paid because of its extra 4 pipelines!!

The 16 pipeline version overclocked to around 325mhz to 350mhz for the core and around 780mhz to 800mhz for the RAM IIRC so I ended up with an underclocked 6800GT!!

It was a good upgrade from an ATI 9500pro!!

That's about right, on mine I could unlock 14 texture pipes and all 6 vertex shaders and get a slight overclock.
Some people couldn't unlock any but could unlock some and get small overclocks out of it.
it was only a lucky few who could unlock all the pipes and clock them to GT

Although it was great at the time picking up a 2nd hand 7600gt would be better as it was as fast as the 6800gt and used less power.
The 6 series ran power hungery and hot, the 7series was much better (bar the early 7900gt which had dodgey memory)

[Uriel]

nVIDIA changed the 6800LE design so later ones weren't unlockable.

[Pob255]

nVIDIA changed the 6800LE design so later ones weren't unlockable.

No, all agp ones were unlockable, it was the pci-e versions were locked at a hardware level so you could not unlock them.

After the 6series all the chips were locked at the hardware level so none of the 7series could be unlocked.