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Nvidia 6600 GT AGP Roundup
[Abstract]
Capturing The Middle GroundIf women are attracted to bright shiny objects, then men must be attracted to bright shiny toys that growl in the dark. How else to explain their fascination with, am...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
MSI NX6600GT-VTD128
For a midrange card, MSI has spared no expenses to include VIVO (Video-in, Video-out) capabilities on its NX6600GT-VTD128, the only card in our comparison to possess this feature. This fait accompli was all thanks to the onboard Philips SAA7115HL video decoder chip. The hefty copper cooler used is a custom MSI design that extends active cooling to the memory chips. The cooler was fairly quiet during operation and it performed reasonably well in cooling the GPU as our temperature tests showed.
An eagle's eye view of the MSI-NX6600GT-VTD128. |
MSI's copper cooler is heavy enough to warrant a retention bracket at the back of the card. |
The copper cooler MSI included for this card is larger than most and it does a decent job. |
MSI equips the NX6600GT-VTD128 with the usual assortment of I/O connectors. |
Overclocking was also another area where the NX6600GT-VTD128 produced fairly good results. MSI has Dynamic Overclocking (D.O.T) technology for some of its cards and the NX6600GT-VTD128 is one of those with that option. Basically, it means that overclocking using this option will not void the card's warranty, as is usually the case. On the contrary, the card is covered under warranty should there be any damage due to the D.O.T option. However MSI does not guarantee that the overclocking is successful or stable for all D.O.T settings, hence the different degrees of D.O.T available. Below are some of the results we had obtained with maximum D.O.T enabled.
As you can see, there is a significant improvement of around 10% when the maximum D.O.T was enabled. The fact that we could push the speeds even higher than D.O.T speeds during our own overclocking gave us the confidence to say that you should have no problems using D.O.T for the MSI NX6600GT-VTD128. At this setting however, it's still not fast enough to outdo the ASUS N6600GT/TOP/TD which is clocked even higher by default. This is just a note to give you readers a perspective of where these cards stack up. As we all know, ASUS graphics cards command a hefty premium and more so with its 'TOP' edition, but whether you are willing to pay a premium for better out of the box performance really depends on your personal priorities and opinions.
The amount of extras bundled with the MSI NX6600GT-VTD128 is positively extravagant when compared to its competitors, with a good number of cables and three full games (which is in addition to the 14 other playable demos). There is also a wide selection of useful applications and MSI utilities. Without a doubt, this is the most comprehensive bundle we have seen so far (but it also means a higher price tag to consider). The complete list of items in the package is as follows:
MSI Media Center Deluxe II
FarStone Virtual Drive 7
FarStone Restore It 3
InterVideo WinDVD 5.1 Channel & Supreme Foreign Language Learning Machine
PhotoShop Album SE
3D Album SE
MSI 3D Desktop
MSI Utilities
E-Color 3Deep
ThinSoft Be Twin
Prince of Persia 3D (full game, 2 CDs)
XIII (full game, 4 CDs)
URU (full game, 1 CD)
14-in-1 Games Collection Demo DVD
Y-power cable splitter
DVI-to-VGA adaptor
S-Video extension cord
9-pin mini-DIN to HDTV (component cable dongle)
A last look at the final card in our roundup. |
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