More important than the number of pixels is the size of the CCD sensor. You can have 11Meg pixels on a 1/2 inch sensor and have poorer quality than a 6Meg pixel on a 2/3 inch sensor. For the 11Meg pixel camera just means they could stuff more or smaller pixels into a smaller size sensor. Better quality is achieved with large number of pixels on a large sensor.
We used to have a coolpix 990 and have a D70s.
Here is a good link
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dq.shtml
Doug