[Pc_Support] GeForce 6200"LE" is crippled 6200 (worse than chipset-integrated 6100/6150) ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

I'm going to add this to my Blog article shortly (along with other
updates, like the new 7600GS AGP, etc...):  
http://thebs413.blogspot.com/2006/02/geforce-6-and-7-series-variants-nuts.html

But I wanted to let people know there are now plenty of 256MB 6200"LE"
cards out there.  They are typically similar in price to the 128MB 6200,
so you might be tempted to buy one -- especially for older AGP systems.

But what they don't tell you is that the 6200"LE" GPUs are _crippled_ to
only 2/1 pixel/vertex, whereas the full 6200 has 4/3 pixel/vertex.
That's a _major_ performance hit -- especially for newer titles!  Most
people are reporting performance slighly _worse_ than a GeForce 5700LE
at newer titles (and not much better than the GeForce Ti4200 at legacy
titles).

You see, the 6200"LE" with a 2/1 pixel/vertex has only a 350MHz clock,
which is _slower_ than the C51 (6100/6150) chipset-integrated GPU which
are 425-475MHz (also 2/1 pixel/vertex).  So you'd be better off spending
the $50 on a new mainboard with the C51 chipset!

So _avoid_ these seemingly "cheap" 256MB 6200"LE" cards in either an AGP
or PCIe flavor.  Go for the full 6200 AGP with only 128MB of RAM, or a
6200 PCIe TurboCache 256MB flavor with at least 64MB (if not 128MB) of
actual RAM on-board.  Or in the "worst case," get a C51 mainboard with
the 6100/6150 on-board -- it'll still be faster!


-- 
Bryan J. Smith          Professional, technical annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org    http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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