Inno3D GeForce 6200A - Specifications

The GeForce 6200 shares all the core functionality of the rest of the GeForce 6X00 family. The main differences between the cards are core speed, memory speed, memory interface, and the cards' resulting layouts and power requirements. Some of the 6200's features include:

• Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 Support
  
• OpenGL® 1.5 Optimizations and Support
  
• Revolutionary Superscalar Architecture
  
• NVIDIA® CineFX™ 3.0 Engine
  
• NVIDIA® UltraShadow™ II Technology
  
• NVIDIA® Intellisample™ 3.0 Technology
  
• Full-Speed 32-Bit Color Precision
  
• Adaptable Programmable Video Processor
  
• High-Definition MPEG-2 and WMV Hardware Acceleration
  
• Advanced Motion Adaptive De-Interlacing delivers a crisp, clear video and DVD playback
  
• Video Scaling and Filtering
  
• NVIDIA® ForceWare™ Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
  
• NVIDIA® Digital Vibrance Control™ 3.0 Technology
  
• NVIDIA® nView™ Multi-Display Technology

It has been a while since the introduction of Shader Model 3.0, and not many games utilize the technology. Is it really a useful feature in the budget 6200? Or is it just being used as a marketing gimmick? It is your call. NVIDIA's UltraShadow II technology enhances the rendering performance of scenes with multiple light sources and objects. Tied to a budget card like the 6200, this technology enables games like Doom 3, which rely heavily on realistic lighting and shadow effects, to be run with reasonable performance.

As with many budget cards in the past, memory interface is a source of headaches when trying to determine if a card is 64-bit or 128-bit. The previous 6200 came in both flavors, and it was crucial for buyers to find the 128-bit version for the extra performance. The 6200A, however, is always 64-bit.

The previous 6200 is based off the NV43 processor, also used in the 6600. The result was you could enable four disabled pixel pipelines and if they were not damaged, have performance close to the equivalent of a 6600. The 6200A however, is based off a new processor, the NV44, which originally was designed for NVIDIA's line of PCI-E Turbocache 6200s. Adapted for the AGP platform, the 6200A still keeps three vertex shaders, but has four pixel pipelines total (none locked or deactivated) and only two Raster Operation Pipes (ROPs) instead of the four on the previous 6200. These changes significantly decrease the transistor count, making the 6200A much cheaper to produce than previous 6200s. But what is cut in cost also cuts performance, because the changes, tied to a 64-bit memory interface, cripple the card more than ever.

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