GeForce 6500

[Mitternacht]

PCI-E X16 slot, 256 MB card. How good is this card? It's installed in my Dell Dimension 5150 here at work (just to try it out), and I got the OK to take it, since we don't need graphics cards here; onboard video is good enough around here.

My mobo coming in doesn't have onboard video, but it has two PCI-E X16 slots and Crossfire ready. This card is only temporary until I can buy a better one. So, how good is this card? Is it better than a Radeon 9600?

[dgrmkrp]

i found some 6500 around, but they are cheaper than a newer 9550.. an old 9600 or pro is either cheaper or at the same price point here.. as far as video capabilities go, it should be better cause it supports newer technologies..
still, these are the specs i found for a model from sparkle.. (other models from chaintech or palit have similar specs, with variations in memory quantity or frequency)

Chip GeForce 6500 ULTRA II PCI-E @ 400MHz
# Pixel Pipelines: 4
# Number of ROPs: 2
# Vertex Processors: 3
# Memory: 128MiB/256MiB DDR on a 64-bit interface
# Fill Rate (pixels/sec): 1.6 billion
# Vertices per Second: 300 millon
# Effective Memory Bandwidth(GB/sec): 13.44
Mem 256 DDR2/64 biti @ 532MHz
but some specs says it can go as high as 700...

the 64bit memory is a performance spoiler.. and i think the stated 532 MHz is after the memory doubling because of DDR.. now, the chip has 4 pipelines and it doesn't support SLI.. at least that's what i read somewhere and seen in most pictures, but some specs rather say: "The GeForce 6500 was released in October 2005 and is based on the same NV44 core as the GeForce 6200TC, but with a higher GPU clock speed and more memory. The GeForce 6500 also supports SLI." also, overclocking based on the nv44 core can go as high as 100MHz or more if you're lucky... maybe.. :)

performance wise, it depends on your system.. the card being the weaker link, you can still play recent games on it.. but not at hi res ;) still, i think this is better than a 9600...

[bartvandenberg]

it can still run a game like half life 2 at good settings. but.. say goodbye to f.e.a.r.