NVIDIA GeForce 6700 XL

The NVIDIA GeForce 6700 XL is a mid-range product from the GeForce 6 PCIe generation, built on the NV43 chip with the Curie architecture. Manufactured on TSMC's 110 nm process, it integrates 146 million transistors on a 154 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 948.1K per mm². The card features 8 texture mapping units and 4 ROPs, with pixel and texture rates of 2.100 GPixel/s and 4.200 GTexel/s respectively. It carries 128 MB of GDDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 17.60 GB/s of bandwidth. The card occupies a single slot, requires one 6-pin PCIe power connector, and is paired with a 200 W suggested power supply. Released on November 13, 2004, it is now end-of-life and sits between the GeForce PCX and the GeForce 7 PCIe in the product line.

How It Compares

The database does not list any nearest rivals for the GeForce 6700 XL, so a direct head-to-head comparison against specific competitor cards is not possible from the provided data. However, its percentile rank of 50 places it exactly at the median of all GPUs in the database, meaning it outperforms half of the tracked graphics cards and trails the other half. This is a neutral position, indicating that the 6700 XL is neither a performance outlier nor a laggard; it represents a typical mid-range offering of its era. Its predecessor, the GeForce PCX, and its successor, the GeForce 7 PCIe, bracket it in the product stack, but no performance scores for those cards are provided here. The 50th percentile ranking suggests that, in the absence of measured benchmark data, the card's theoretical specifications align with a mainstream segment.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The GeForce 6700 XL does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores; those fields are not specified in the data, which is consistent with a product from the early 2000s. The card supports DirectX 9.0c with the 9_3 feature level, which covers Shader Model 3.0 and the typical geometry and pixel shader capabilities of that generation. OpenGL support is full for version 2.0 and partial for 2.1, meaning that applications relying on the complete 2.1 specification may encounter limitations. There is no Vulkan support, as that API had not yet been introduced at the time of the card's release. The interface is PCIe 1.0 x16, which was the standard for the era and provides sufficient bandwidth for the card's memory subsystem. Display outputs are limited to one DVI and one VGA connector, so users with multiple monitors or digital-only displays will need adapters or alternative solutions.

Power and Cooling

The 6700 XL is a single-slot card, indicating a compact cooler design that exhausts heat within the chassis. It requires a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, and NVIDIA recommends a 200 W power supply for the system. No TDP figure is provided in the data, but the modest PSU recommendation and the single 6-pin connector suggest a power draw that is well within the capabilities of typical mid-range power supplies of its time. The lack of a detailed cooling specification means we cannot comment on fan noise or thermal performance, but the single-slot form factor implies a low-profile heatsink and fan combination. Builders should ensure their power supply has the necessary 6-pin connector and at least 200 W of capacity on the appropriate rail.

Who Should Consider It

Given its pixel fill rate of 2.100 GPixel/s and texture rate of 4.200 GTexel/s, the GeForce 6700 XL is suited for early DirectX 9 games and older titles. The 128 MB frame buffer and 17.60 GB/s memory bandwidth will handle low to medium detail settings at resolutions that were common in 2004, such as 1024x768 or 1280x1024, though exact resolutions are not specified in the data. The card's 50th percentile ranking suggests it performs on par with the median GPU, making it a baseline for entry-level gaming or as a secondary display adapter. It is not designed for modern high-resolution or texture-heavy workloads; the limited VRAM and bandwidth will quickly become bottlenecks. Users who primarily play older games or need a simple PCIe graphics solution for basic desktop tasks will find it adequate, but those expecting to run contemporary titles at high settings will be disappointed.

Benchmark Performance

The database records an average benchmark score of 0 for the GeForce 6700 XL, which indicates that no measured performance data has been entered. Consequently, there are no rival scores or percentage deltas to analyze. The percentile rank of 50 is the only comparative metric available, and it places the card at the exact median of all GPUs in the database. This suggests that, based on the database's overall distribution, the 6700 XL delivers performance typical of an average graphics card. Without benchmark numbers, we cannot calculate specific deltas against competitors. The theoretical rates—2.100 GPixel/s and 4.200 GTexel/s—provide a ceiling for fill-rate-bound workloads, but real-world performance depends on driver optimization, game engine efficiency, and memory bandwidth utilization. The absence of benchmark data is common for end-of-life products from this era, as modern benchmarking suites often do not support such old hardware.

Memory Subsystem

The GeForce 6700 XL is equipped with 128 MB of GDDR3 memory, which was a standard capacity for mid-range cards in 2004. The memory operates at 550 MHz, translating to an effective data rate of 1100 Mbps, and is connected via a 128-bit bus. This configuration yields a memory bandwidth of 17.60 GB/s. For a 128 MB frame buffer, this bandwidth is sufficient for low-resolution textures and simple scenes, but it becomes a limiting factor when rendering at higher resolutions or enabling anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. The small capacity restricts the amount of texture data that can be stored on-chip, forcing the GPU to repeatedly fetch data from system memory via the PCIe bus, which is slower. As a result, the card is best suited for games that were designed with 128 MB VRAM in mind, typically those from 2003-2005. Users attempting to run modern titles with large texture packs will encounter severe stuttering and reduced frame rates due to memory thrashing. The 128-bit bus width is modest compared to later generations, but it was a reasonable balance for the target market at launch. Overall, the memory subsystem is adequate for the card's intended use case but not future-proof.