Closer Look

We got a reference sample of the GeForce 6600 GT AGP graphics card from NVIDIA Corp. So it was without any package, save for an antistatic bag. This piece of hardware looks rather odd:

The engineers had to keep the PCB small and yet put a HSI chip down somewhere with all its wiring, and in doing so they turned the graphics core and the memory chips by 45 degrees. The AGP-to-PCI Express converter chip sits next to the GPU heatsink, on the right.

There’re quite naturally a lot of differences between the PCBs of the PCI Express and AGP versions of the GeForce 6600 GT. The power circuits differ, too. The AGP version has all the power elements moved to the right part of the board, while the PCI Express version has this circuit wired near the SLI connector. The AGP slot cannot provide enough power to the device, and they put an additional Molex connector on board to power the card up. The difference extends to the right part of the PCB, too. The AGP version comes with two DVI-I connectors and doesn’t have a SLI connector, of course. The GeForce 6600 GT AGP carries Samsung’s 2.0ns GDDR3 memory. The total amount of the graphics memory is 128 megabytes, like with the PCI Express version.

A curious fact is that the memory frequency on this card is 900MHz whereas the PCI Express version clocks its memory at 1,000MHz. The company may have reduced the default memory frequency to ensure its stability after the redesign of the PCB wiring, but our sample was quite operable at 1,000MHz memory frequency. The graphics processor works at 500MHz, just as it should.

The cooling system is borrowed from the GeForce 6600 GT PCI Express ?the same modest, black cooler equipped with a small transparent fan. The only difference is the picture on the metal cover ?instead of NVIDIA’s logo we see a monster with bared teeth and the text “Doom 3? That’s probably a hint to you that NVIDIA’s cards are the best choice for this particular game. The converter chip is hidden under a small black heatsink which is rather hot at work.