The NV43, however, already has a built-in PCI Express interface, so for the AGP version of the GeForce 6600 GT, NVIDIA is turning the HSI chip around and using it to bridge between the PCI-E graphics chip and an AGP motherboard.Īs far as pixel pipelines, shaders, and core clock speeds are concerned, the GeForce 6600 GT AGP is identical to the GeForce 6600 GT. The GeForce PCX line of cards use the bridge chip in this way. NVIDIA currently uses the HSI bridge to make its graphics chips with AGP interfaces work on PCI-E motherboards. The second is NVIDIA’s High-Speed Interconnect (HSI) bridge chip, which translates between AGP and PCI Express. The first is the GeForce 6600 GT GPU, otherwise known as NV43.
The GeForce 6600 GT AGP has two heat sinks because there are actually two NVIDIA chips on board. The GeForce 6600 GT GPU and HSI bridge chip I’ll be going over the key differences between the two. The two cards are quite similar, except where they’re not. Was anything lost in the translation? Read on as we explore the GeForce 6600 GT AGP’s performance against its PCI Express counterpart and mid-range competition.īefore we get into the GeForce 6600 GT AGP, I suggest you read through our review of the GeForce 6600 GT for PCI Express. With a little help from its High Speed Interconnect (HSI) bridge chip, NVIDIA has brought the GeForce 6600 GT to AGP. You’ll still need an LGA775 Pentium 4 or Celeron processor if you want to get in on PCI Express graphics.įortunately, you don’t need PCI Express to get in on the GeForce 6600 GT, at least not anymore. Since September, we’ve previewed Athlon 64 chipsets with PCI Express support from ATI, NVIDIA, and VIA, but none are available in production motherboards just yet. It’s wasn’t that we didn’t like PCI Express, but the only commercially available PCI Express platform was saddled with the Pentium 4’s comparatively poor gaming performance. W HILE WE WERE extremely impressed with the GeForce 6600 GT when it was launched back in September, the card’s PCI Express X16 interface left us longing for an AGP flavor.
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