Nathan Davis feels a glitch in the Matrix, and develops an odd attraction towards Keanu Reeves.
Unlike the path ATI chose to go down with the selection of BGA memory for all X700 cards, even the slower ones, this one uses eight 4ns TSOP modules, both rated and running at an effective speed of 500MHz. The 6600 has a reduced core clock to 300MHz.
It comes equipped with ‘HDTV support' and what this actually means is it has a component video dongle. Obviously not solely for HDTVs, but they require a component signal to display 720p or 1080i. Aside from that, it's the term for the marketing goofs, even without excessive use of the seemingly de rigueur letter ‘x'.
Deviations aside, component is a damn nice addition to the card. The dongle also has an s-video output, but if you can use component, that's by far the preferred path. The GF 6600 range only comes built with three programmable vertex shader pipelines, unlike the X700 series' six vertex shaders, relying instead on the CPU to perform a large portion of this.
Fabricated on a 0.11-micron process, this card doesn't get all that heated when under full strain and thankfully the fan is quiet. Testing on our i925X system had it performing consistently above the X600 XT, delivering 4480 3DMarks in 3DMark03, 31fps in Doom 3 at 1280 x 1024 and hitting 36.1fps in our Far Cry Bunker test.
Overall, the SLI-equipped GeForce 6600 GT is the gaming card. The slower 6600, with performance hitting the scale between an X600 XT and the X700 XT, makes a damn good option for a HTPC with the added bonus of occasional gaming.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012