Hi, I'd like to know the advantages/disadvantages of each cards listed here for Game/Graphics Programming. At the moment I am running a GeForce Fx 5200, and I am thinking about switching to one of theses ... I know they are all good, but I want to know the real impact they can have, let's say on the frame rate, the light, what really is the shader model version 3 vs 2 etc... I don't know much about game programming, but I am interested to learn it, I took some course at GameInstitute, installed the DirectX sdk, and some examples are running slowly (shaders one) I know my current card doesn't support them entirelly .. so I'd like to know theses kind of impact theses cards could have on the programming side of things. GeForce 6600 (especially the differences between 6600 and 6800) GeForce 6800 Ati Radeon 128mb Pro Ati X800 Thanks a lot for your opinion

This might disappoint you but, as you're just starting with game programming (or programming in general??) you probably will not need any of those cards yet. Your current hardware will manage to run the basic things you're going to learn.
There's no such thing as programming FarCry in 24 hours. =P
My advice: if you want to make games, but you also like eye-candy, become a 3D artist. They're much more needed. [wink]

Methinks the nVidia cards you named are better than the Radeon cards atm, but ATI is releasing better cards soon. The main differences. (Note the better shader support on the 6800)

I also have a GeForce 5200 its usually enough to run most of the games I'm working on (currently just a Tetris clone and a crappy rpg). You probably won't need a better card anytime soon; unless you are planning to write Doom 7 [smile]

Don´t know what your goals are, Kepler, but I´d also say a GeForce 5200 should be enough for most of any games needs. In fact the only thing I can see, you COULD need is shader model 3 which btw has only really been used in Far Cry, and as someone above already stated, you won´t do something like that too soon ;)
But if you want a new graphics card never the less (for gaming perhaps) I would buy a GeForce 6600 GT. You won´t get more power for your money atm.

Quote:Original post by Aldacron
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll see a side by side comparison chart ('GeForce 6 Series GPUs Features Comparison') 6800, 6600, and 6200.

No offence but that is usually one of the worst places to get a comparison chart on the cards... considering it does not show any meaningful specifications, nor breakdowns per actual card in the category.