Overclocking and thoughts

XFX has already raised memory speed to an impressive 1200MHz but has left the core at the 6600 GT default clock of 500MHz. Overclocking was carried out without any additional cooling directed at the card. Of course, overclocking isn't a repeatable science, and your overclock may vary considerably. Our sample managed to run solidly at 580MHz core and 1265MHz RAM.

As seen by PowerStrip. DOOM 3 was re-run at 1280x1024 4x AA/8x AF. Here's how it panned out.

The performance increase doesn't look so hot on the graph above, but it's around 20% better than a standard 6600 GT's. Who knows, your sample may hit 600MHz core and 1300MHz RAM. It's actually scary thinking about current video RAM speed that is faster than many a user's CPU.

Thoughts

XFX, a division of Pine, has done an excellent job with its GeForce 6600 GT card. The company knew that it was on to a winner with the GPU; it's difficult to manufacture a bad one, really. XFX, intelligently, also knew that bigger NVIDIA partners would probably steal the limelight unless it did something special to its package. A pre-overclocked GPU speed was always unlikely, so XFX has gone with video RAM that runs at a full 20% faster than the default 1000MHz. That extra memory bandwidth, totalling 19.2GB/s off only a 128-bit bus, is the reason why XFX's effort is between 5-10% faster than the competition in the majority of our benchmarks.

Having a faster card usually entails more expense. This is where XFX scores another point, because a brief look through reputable online vendors' catalogues shows a competitive ?50 selling price. I also appreciate that XFX hasn't skimped on the card's bundle. A trio of older games may not stretch the card as much as, say, DOOM 3, but it's certainly better than a number of competitors who think a driver CD is all that's needed with midrange and top-end cards. If pre-overclocked RAM, striking design, and a competitive price just doesn't do it for you, perhaps the card's dual DVI ports will make you an XFX convert. I'm struggling to find a bad word to say about XFX's GeForce 6600 GT 128MB package. That's enough for it to earn a commendation from us.

Availability

This product is available from Scan International (?37.48 Inc. VAT / ?17 Ex. VAT - AGP Version).



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