Inno3D GeForce 6600 GT (PCX) Review

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The answer was Silent Night ;)

The Technical BlahblahThe GT card tested today will be offered in 128 and 256 MB configurations, you'll likely go for the 256 MB version, we however received the 128 MB model. Let's have a look at NVIDIA's GeForce Series 6 product line: 

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Product Lineup Specifications

Product Name

# pixel processors

# vertex processors

Bus width

Memory Type/Amount

GPU Speed

RAM Speed

GeForce 6800 Ultra

16

6

256-bit

GDDR3/256MB

400MHz

1100MHz

GeForce 6800 GT

16

6

256-bit

GDDR3/256MB

350MHz

1000MHz

GeForce 6800

12

5

256-bit

GDDR/128MB

325MHz

700MHz

GeForce 6800 LE*

8

4

256-bit

GDDR/128MB

320MHz

700MHz

GeForce 6600 GT 8 3 128-bit GDDR3/128/256MB 500MHz 1000MHz
GeForce 6600 8 3 64/128-bit GDDR/128MB 300MHz 275(550)
GeForce 6200
4 3 64/128-bit GDDR/128MB/256MB 300MHz 275(550)

I started this article by stating "a product for any budget." As you can see from the table above, NVIDIA is more than happy with the Series 6 graphics processor, they announced Series 6 in April and look what is saturating the retail and OEM market already. Quite amazing.

As you have noticed, the GeForce 6600 GT cards come with a 500 MHz clock and memory rate, 128-bit (GDDR3, 128 MB) with a suggested price tag of $/EUR229. The standard GeForce 6600 will also come with that 128-bit bus (GDDR, 128/256 MB), will cost about $150 and has a way lower yet more overclockable ~300 MHz core clock.

The GeForce 6600 product line has 8 Pixel pipelines and 3 Vertex processors that are confirmed to be working 100% with Rivatuner. The 6600 series can write only four color pixels per clock and has a fragment crossbar. The NV43 does appear to have eight pixel shader/texture units, so its not an "8 x 1" design or a "4 x 1" design. It's more of a hybrid and works quite well.

Bundled Items
I
n the box we see a very average software bundle. It boils down to a driver CD, InterVideo WinDVD 4 Creator for capture and to playback DVD (full version) and hey... you'll find a free copy of 3DMark 03. Next to the manual we can find a S-Video to Composite output cable and last but not least a DVI to CRT/VGA adapter, so that you are able to hook up 2 CRT VGA monitors to your card. Business strategy, less software results in a better sales price.

Copyright Guru3D.com - 2004
The goods we can find inside the box.

Impressions


When we take a look at the card we can plainly see it is reference based, except the really nice black colored PCB. What I really like is that even for this somewhat cheaper product a better cooling solution, as opposed to the reference cooling, was used. A nice and shiny copper heatsink with an active fan. The cooling solution comes from Cooler Master and although a really quality brand in this business, I have to admit that I find the fan too noisy. It's not that loud but it'll make an annoying pitch that you can hear very clearly. Cooling wise it does a very nice job though.

Let's fire up Rivatuner and see what the card reports back to us to verify the specs from the box:

$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff Display adapter information
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$0000000000 Description : NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
$0000000001 Vendor ID : 10de (NVIDIA)
$0000000002 Device ID : 0140
$0000000003 Location : bus 1, device 0, function 0
$0000000004 Bus type : PCI
$0000000009 Base address 0 : d0000000 (memory range)
$000000000a Base address 1 : c8000000 (memory range)
$000000000b Base address 2 : none
$000000000c Base address 3 : d4000000 (memory range)
$000000000d Base address 4 : none
$000000000e Base address 5 : none
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff NVIDIA specific display adapter information
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$0100000000 Graphics core : NV43 revision A2 (8x1,3vp)
$0100000001 Hardwired ID : 0140 (ROM strapped to 0140)
$0100000002 Memory bus : 128-bit
$0100000003 Memory type : DDR (RAM configuration 07)
$0100000004 Memory amount : 131072KB
$0100000005 Core clock : 501.428MHz
$0100000006 Memory clock : 501.188MHz (1002.375MHz effecti...
$0100000007 Reference clock : 27.000MHz


 

As you can see everything as the box specifications promise. Interestingly it reads out as an A2 revision of the graphics core. Furthermore 8 pixel pipelines and 3 Vertex Processors are enabled. The card follows reference specifications.

Copyright Guru3D.com 2004
We're using ForceWare 66.93 WHQL for today's review.
 

The Installation
It's really not hard to install a graphics card yourself in this day and age. Especially with brands like ATI and NVIDIA, who use unified driver sets. If you have a really new product then make sure you have the latest drivers on your HD. First uninstall your current graphics card's drivers carefully, this is very important especially if the older graphics card was from a different chipset manufacturer. Now power down the PC and pull out the power cable. Insert the graphics card in the slot, secure it with a screw, connect the monitor and boot up windows, run the driver installation, then restart and you are set to go. That's all. Also important, make sure you have the latest version of DirectX (9.0c) installed. If you experience compatibility issues, please make sure you have installed the latest version of your mainboard drivers, have a look in our extensive download section I'd say.

Latest software Downloads

PCI-Express
PCI Express is a new development in I/O interconnect standards that companies like NVIDIA, ATI and many others will deploy in future graphics solutions.
With up to 4GB/s of one-directional and 8GB/s of concurrent bandwidth you can be sure to have high-speed graphics output. PCI Express significantly increases bandwidth between the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU). We are not yet 100% sure if Series 6600 uses HSI or is a native solution, the AGP version though will be bridged.

Albatron Mars PX915P/G Pro Copyright 2004 - Guru3D.com
1 x16 PCI express (red) slot and next to it are the two (blue) x1 PCI Express slots.

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