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The Verdict
As you can see this particular card from XFX clearly performed rather nicely. It's at a good price and comes with a nice bundle. I have to mention that this is a product aimed at the true oveclockers who lack money. When we focus on that overclock for a second we see a 894 MHz memory frequency along with a 540 MHz core clock, yes 540 MHz! That's a 240 MHz increase over the "default" 6600 cards, that's almost insane. Grab Coolbits or Rivatuner and get started! Be warned though as overclocking might cause an issue with your warranty, but let's set aside the overclock as well as that's just for the freaks such as yours truly. The GeForce 6600 always offered really good value for your money yet it lacked that edge. However, with the new clock frequencies and faster memory this product suddenly became much more interesting. Do you want to know what this product will cost you ? Well, only 119 / 125 USD which actually is a manufacturer suggested retail price. Now for that kind of money you'll be able to play most modern games at very acceptable framerates. That's a downright steal !

Although at default clocks the 6600 GT still takes a good lead we notice that we can alter the clocks easily up to a level where the GT is near. One sidenote, the specs as we have shown you today are not 100% defined for the final product though. XFX guarantees the clock frequencies are 400 on the core and 400 (x2) on the memory, but usually it'll be higher. The upcoming batch for example will run at a 450 MHz (default) on the core with 400 (x2) on the memory. A little weird yes, but XFX looks at how the batches should be clocked best.

Let's talk games. If we look at the somewhat older titles then this card just chews them up easily. Modern titles can be played at a resolution of 1024x768. For example you'll be able to play Doom 3 at high quality with an average of 81 Frames per second and it is still playable with 37 FPS when we enable 4xAA and 8xAF. Halo at that same resolution manages to squeeze out 57 FPS with 16 levels of AF. Even Far Cry at the highest possible Image Quality setting did 39 FPS with 4xAA and 8xAF enabled. That's just great for the money isn't it? Sure it's 10x7, but that is the most common gaming resolution for the budget and mid-range gamers.

The thing is that with titles like these you will have to forfeit on Antialiasing when you go higher in resolution. You can use this card with last years gaming titles but the newer and upcoming titles will lose the ability to play well with extreme settings as shaders demand a hefty toll on the graphics core. But hey, you can't have it all and most definitely not for this kind of money. You'll have very respectable frame rates and all the neat modern technology features. Stability wise we have seen no issues. Image quality was sharp and crisp. This is a great product which is very affordable. Again, 119 and that's including a copy of Far Cry, 256 MB of memory and a two year warranty. The 6600 with 256 MB gDDR2 is a very cost effective product. If your budget isn't sky-high you should put this product on your wish list as you'll definitely enjoy it. It's simply worth every penny. Products like these, bring em on I'd say !

Special thanks go out to Joost over at XFX for the support, and as always of course to Adam "the pimp daddy of graphics cards" Foat himself. ;)