GeForce 6 Series
 |
|
| Release date | April 2004–2005 |
|---|---|
| Codename | NV4x |
| Models | GeForce nForce Series
|
| Cards | |
| Entry-level | 6100 6150 6200 6500 |
| Mid-range | 6600 6700 |
| High-end | 6800 |
| Enthusiast | 6800 Ultra / Ultra Extreme |
| API support | |
| Direct3D |
Direct3D 9.0c Shader Model 3.0 |
| OpenGL | OpenGL 2.1 |
| History | |
| Predecessor | GeForce 5 series |
| Successor | GeForce 7 series |
The GeForce 6 Series (codename NV40) is Nvidia's sixth generation of GeForce graphic processing units. Launched on April 14, 2004, the GeForce 6 family introduced PureVideo post-processing for video, SLI technology, and Shader Model 3.0 support (compliant with Microsoft DirectX 9.0c specification and OpenGL 2.0).
The Scalable Link Interface (SLI) allows two GeForce 6 cards of the same type to be connected in tandem. The driver software balances the workload between the cards. SLI-capability is limited to select members of the GeForce 6 family; 6500 and above. SLI is only available for cards utilizing the PCI-Express bus.
Nvidia PureVideo technology is the combination of a dedicated video processing core and software which decodes H.264, VC-1, WMV, and MPEG-2 videos with reduced CPU utilization.
Nvidia was the first to deliver Shader Model 3.0 (SM3) capability in its GPUs. SM3 extends SM2 in a number of ways: standard FP32 (32-bit floating-point) precision, dynamic branching, increased efficiency and longer shader lengths are the main additions. Shader Model 3.0 was quickly adopted by game developers because it was quite simple to convert existing shaders coded with SM 2.0/2.0A/2.0B to version 3.0, and it offered noticeable performance improvements across the entire GeForce 6 line.
PureVideo functionality varies by model, with some models lacking WMV9 and/or H.264 acceleration.
In addition, motherboards with some VIA and SIS chipsets and an AMD Athlon XP processor seemingly have compatibility problems with the GeForce 6600 and 6800 GPUs. Problems that have been known to arise are freezing, artifacts, reboots, and other issues that make gaming and use of 3D applications almost impossible. These problems seem to happen only on Direct3D based applications and do not affect OpenGL.
Here is how the released versions of the "GeForce 6" series family compare to Nvidia's previous flagship GPU, the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, in addition to the comparable units of ATI's newly released for the time Radeon X800 and X850 Series:
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