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XFX GeForce 6600 Review
[Abstract]
Timely UpgradeATI has finally played its cards (no pun intended) early last month but as we have mentioned before, getting your hands on the new Radeons at the day of launch may be more frustra...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
X for Xtra Performance
The design of the XFX GeForce 6600 256MB DDR2 faithfully follows the reference design on an attractive blue PCB. The layout is simple enough, a small, decent cooler surrounded by the DDR2 memory. There is no need for additional power through any power connectors and the transistors are relatively few and uncluttered, due to the lower end nature of the GeForce 6600. The square cooler may look plain but luckily, it keeps a relatively low noise profile too. Compared to the loud din made by its rival, ATI's Radeon X1300 PRO, the fairly quiet cooler is a plus point for the new GeForce 6600, though the original GeForce 6600 was not excessively loud anyway. Together with its hardware support for NVIDIA's PureVideo and MPEG2 decoding, it makes this quiet and versatile card extremely suitable for home theatre personal computers (HTPC) and would double up for some decent gaming action as well.
A nice, blue PCB is used for the XFX GeForce 6600 256MB DDR2 but besides that, there is nothing unusual about the card, which follows the reference design. |
The back of the card is plain, with all the memory modules located at the front. |
XFX has had a tradition of pushing its graphics products by overclocking some of its cards in the factory and its new GeForce 6600 is no different. The core clock has been given a slight if effective bump from the reference 350MHz to 400MHz. The memory clock meanwhile remained the same as the reference at 800MHz DDR. However, this is a dramatic improvement over the 550MHz DDR frequency of the older GeForce 6600 and promises to give the newer card a definite performance boost. Couple that with the larger 256MB frame buffer on the GeForce 6600 DDR2 cards (though certain vendors would deliver even more cost effective 128MB versions) and you can see why this new variant has much more potential than the original.
Infineon 2.5ns rated DDR2 RAM modules are used. |
Don't expect dual DVI-I connectors for a lower end card like the GeForce 6600, even for this enhanced iteration. However, some vendors may choose to release souped out versions, so do keep a lookout. |
Beneath its layers of packaging, the box containing the card's accessories and software is quite compact. Inside, there are two CDs, one with a complete version of FarCry (which is very welcomed) while the other disk contained the drivers and 3D Edit, a software which makes use of the 3D capabilities of the graphics card for real-time video editing. Besides the standard manual, there is only a DVI-to-VGA adaptor and a S-Video cable. Overall, it is not exactly bulging with accessories but considering its lower mid-range focus, the bundle suits the card well. Finally, the presence of an excellent first person shooter, FarCry, more than made up for it. Here then is the short list of items at a glance:
DVI-to-VGA adaptor
9-pin mini-DIN to S-Video cable
User Manual
Driver CD
FarCry
3D Edit
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XFX GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB XXX Edition Review (2006-01-19)