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nVidia 6600 vs 6600le?

tevion5

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
I have the puny 6600le in my DC Late 2005 2.0GH Power mac. It is easily the systems biggest bottleneck. I'd love a nice fat 7800gt but the cost of those things is ludicrous!

I would be willing to get a 6600 becasue by selling the 6600le I'd easily make all the money back or even a profit :rolleyes:

So my question, from people experience, is the 6600 noticeably stronger than the 6600le? (Aqua Animations, Games, Video Editing etc.)
 
tevion5 said:
I have the puny 6600le in my DC Late 2005 2.0GH Power mac. It is easily the systems biggest bottleneck. I'd love a nice fat 7800gt but the cost of those things is ludicrous!

I would be willing to get a 6600 becasue by selling the 6600le I'd easily make all the money back or even a profit :rolleyes:

So my question, from people experience, is the 6600 noticeably stronger than the 6600le? (Aqua Animations, Games, Video Editing etc.)
Click to expand...

No, 6600 is the same POS card as the one with the LE moniker. 128 vs 256 DDR1 VRAM makes no substantial difference. If you really want to squeeze some power out of that machine get a PC version of FX4500, 7800GTX 512, X1950XT, X1900XT or X1900GT and flash it. It will cost you just a few $$, but the difference is HUGE - thanks to GDDR3 memory.

I have a flashed X1950XT (flashed to X1900XT) 256MB in DC 2.0 G5 myself. I also have 8GBs of RAM installed and with this setup I'm able to play even 720p Youtube flash video right in Safari and it runs just fine. Every PPC game runs on max settings totally smooth. On the other hand, both 6600 and 6600LE were struggling to play even 480p. I tell ya, buying 6600 is pointless.

My recommendation:
For games: ATI X19x0 256MB or nVidia 7800GTX 512MB
For video editing: nVidia FX4500 512MB is the best IMHO, but any of the two above will perform also very well.
 
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Colpeas said:
No, 6600 is the same POS card as the one with the LE moniker. 128 vs 256 DDR1 VRAM makes no substantial difference. If you really want to squeeze some power out of that machine get a PC version of FX4500, 7800GTX 512, X1950XT, X1900XT or X1900GT and flash it. It will cost you just a few $$, but the difference is HUGE - thanks to GDDR3 memory.

I have a flashed X1950XT (flashed to X1900XT) 256MB in DC 2.0 G5 myself. I also have 8GBs of RAM installed and with this setup I'm able to play even 720p Youtube flash video right in Safari and it runs just fine. Every PPC game runs on max settings totally smooth. On the other hand, both 6600 and 6600LE were struggling to play even 480p. I tell ya, buying 6600 is pointless.

My recommendation:
For games: ATI X19x0 265MB or nVidia 7800GTX 512MB
For video editing: nVidia FX4500 512MB is the best IMHO, but any of the two above will perform also very well.
Click to expand...

Alright you've sold me. What do I require in order to flash a Windows based card to mac firmware?
 
tevion5 said:
Alright you've sold me. What do I require in order to flash a Windows based card to mac firmware?
Click to expand...

A ROM, a windoze or DOS PC.

nvWinflash for an nvidia card in windoze

nvflash for an nvidia card in DOS

atiwinflash for an ati card in windoze

atiflash for an ati card in DOS
 
Colpeas said:
No, 6600 is the same POS card as the one with the LE moniker.
Click to expand...

Nope. 6600 is twice as fast as LE, especially on gaming field. Double RAM, texture units and fill rate, double shader operations.

It's undoubtedly slower than 7800 and X1900, but not as much as 6600LE.

BTW, AFAIR X1900 could be flashed on a Mac using Graphiccelerator.
 
666sheep said:
Nope. 6600 is twice as fast as LE, especially on gaming field. Double RAM, texture units and fill rate, double shader operations.

It's undoubtedly slower than 7800 and X1900, but not as much as 6600LE.

BTW, AFAIR X1900 could be flashed on a Mac using Graphiccelerator.
Click to expand...

Then can be flashed direct as it is mounted on the DC and Quad?
 
Yes, but using another card to output video or remotely via VNC. Better to use Graphiccelerator with 10.4. Some people reported problems with 10.5
Graphiccelerator supports X1900GT ROM for flashing, but not for overclocking.
 
rabidz7 said:
A ROM, a windoze or DOS PC.

nvWinflash for an nvidia card in windoze

nvflash for an nvidia card in DOS

atiwinflash for an ati card in windoze

atiflash for an ati card in DOS
Click to expand...

Righto. I can put a a windoze machine together with PCIe for a Power Mac 11,2 graphics card.

I was thinking of getting a normal gtx 7800 and flashing it with a quadro rom. Is that the way to do it?

Also how "involved" is flashing? I have no fear of the command line but exactly how much effort does it take?
 
666sheep said:
Yes, but using another card to output video or remotely via VNC. Better to use Graphiccelerator with 10.4. Some people reported problems with 10.5
Graphiccelerator supports X1900GT ROM for flashing, but not for overclocking.
Click to expand...

I might try this, interesting. I thought that the only for X1900 was to flash it on a PC.
 
Which card and which ROM do you mean (256 or 512MB, Quadro, GT or GTX ROM)? Flashing with GT and GTX ROM is possible only if card has 128K chip. Quadro ROM fits on 64K one. 99% of GTX cards does have 64K EEPROM.

Cross flashing (GTX 256MB card with GT ROM or GTX 512 with Quadro ROM) is possible, but requires altering device ID in ROM to match the card one.
 
666sheep said:
Which card and which ROM do you mean (256 or 512MB, Quadro, GT or GTX ROM)? Flashing with GT and GTX ROM is possible only if card has 128K chip. Quadro ROM fits on 64K one. 99% of GTX cards does have 64K EEPROM.

Cross flashing (GTX 256MB card with GT ROM or GTX 512 with Quadro ROM) is possible, but requires altering device ID in ROM to match the card one.
Click to expand...

The card I am considering is the EVGA 256mb gtx 7800.

What ROM is appropriate for that? Also how do I find out what the chip size is without owning the card and running NVflash?
 
Most of 256MB GTXes (if not all) will have 64K chip. That was those days standard. Only some 512MB ones came with 128K one.

Only certain way to know what size chip card has (before buying) is to convince seller to send you an output of nflash --check command. ROM size 2000 is 128K, 1000 is 64K.

Most suitable ROM for 256MB GTX would be 7800GT one, because it doesn't need more edits than device ID. There's no (public) Quadro and 7800 GTX 256MB PPC ROM. If you're patient, you could try to edit Quadro or 7800GTX 512 ROM to reduce memory size in it.

...or just go for X1900/1950 ;)
 
rabidz7 said:
I amusing a 7800GTX that is XFX. Is the eVGA reference?

----------

There really is no rom for the 256MB GTX 7800.
Click to expand...

Is there a ROM to use on a normal GT 7800 256? Would that be an easier card to flash?
 
I have never managed to get the 7800GTX 256M running without errors. I am using the Dell model with the Quadro cooler on it, that one has a 128K ROM iirc. I also have an Albatron 7800GT which has a 128K ROM by default. Best way to go for PCI-E G5s is the X1900GT, the 7800GTX 512 are too rare to buy for cheap..
 
666sheep said:
Nope. 6600 is twice as fast as LE, especially on gaming field. Double RAM, texture units and fill rate, double shader operations.

It's undoubtedly slower than 7800 and X1900, but not as much as 6600LE.

BTW, AFAIR X1900 could be flashed on a Mac using Graphiccelerator.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but nothing multiplied by 2 is still nothing. :p

Also I'm not sure if Graphiccelerator supports X1900 series under 10.5, haven't tried it yet, but will do soon. I have plenty of cards I can test it on. I usually use ATIflash on my MacPro. Sorry, missed that in your earlier post.

By the way I am now working on a rom for Sapphire X1950PRO 256MB because they're quite cheap and easy-to-get (at least here in Europe), but my G5 always freezes on boot, regardless of what I edit (I based that rom on working X1950XT PPC ROM, but altered the DevID to match X1950PRO). Long story short, it doesn't work. Any ideas what to try, sheep? I can send you the ROMs if you'd like to look at it...

P.S. If someone's interested I have 2 spare flashed X1950XT's I can offer for sale or exchange. They are both guaranteed working, have new thermal compound applied and were thoroughly cleaned. They also come with Apple PCI-E power cable, so it's essentially a plug'n'play kit. Anybody PM me if interested, I will ship worldwide. I flash cards for fun and then don't know what to do with them... :)

666sheep said:
Most of 256MB GTXes (if not all) will have 64K chip. That was those days standard. Only some 512MB ones came with 128K one.

Only certain way to know what size chip card has (before buying) is to convince seller to send you an output of nflash --check command. ROM size 2000 is 128K, 1000 is 64K.

Most suitable ROM for 256MB GTX would be 7800GT one, because it doesn't need more edits than device ID. There's no (public) Quadro and 7800 GTX 256MB PPC ROM. If you're patient, you could try to edit Quadro or 7800GTX 512 ROM to reduce memory size in it.

...or just go for X1900/1950 ;)
Click to expand...

Wait, I thought 7800GTX 256MB is known to perform awfully under Leopard. At least that's what I've been told. Or is it not true? Anyway, I just bought THIS 7800GTX 512MB. Any idea if it will work? I can replace the EEPROM if necessary, but it would be nice to know what to expect before it arrives...

EDIT: I have done a quick search for 7800GTX512 ROMs and they all seem to be circa 64KB, including the one for PPC Macs, which I do have fortunately. Hoooray! I guess I'm gonna save this card for Quad G5 I'd love to buy later this year.... :)
 
Last edited:
The 6600LE uses cheaper memory, and some pipelines are disabled by the vbios(Unlike laser cut that we use today).

You can unlock the pipelines of the 6600LE using a modified bios, but not sure if it will work on Macs.

Also you risk bricking your card if the disabled pipelines are faulty or the flash failed
 
Colpeas said:
By the way I am now working on a rom for Sapphire X1950PRO 256MB because they're quite cheap and easy-to-get (at least here in Europe), but my G5 always freezes on boot, regardless of what I edit (I based that rom on working X1950XT PPC ROM, but altered the DevID to match X1950PRO). Long story short, it doesn't work. Any ideas what to try, sheep? I can send you the ROMs if you'd like to look at it...
Click to expand...

I'm afraid X1950Pro is no go. It's based on RV570. All other X19xx cards are based on various revisions of RV580. That's why X1900GT ROM works with these but not with the Pro. People who tried to get X1950Pro AGP to work with this ROM have encountered the same issue.
You need to be very well skilled in FCode to make it work. I'm not, unfortunately.
 
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