Topic: Video Card Product: Gigabyte GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E Supplied By: Gigabyte Date: 01/07/05 Reviewer: Troy Palmer

Introduction

With NV3X debacle behind them NVIDIA has charged full steam ahead with the GeForce 6 Series of video cards and to say that they have been a success would be an understatement when you look at the total sales from just two cards in this group, those being the 6800 GT and 6800 Ultra.  Both of these cards have proven that the AGP market is still strong and that not everyone is ready to rush out and embrace the the relatively new PCI-E cards being introduced by vendors.

NVIDIA was a smart enough to realize that if they were going to introduce a marketable PCI-E video card to the gaming community the first thing they had to do was prove that it had the ability to delivery the goods. The second thing was not to price it so far out of reach of average gamer that they were once again left standing wondering what it would be like to own a quality video card. With the introduction of the 6600 series of cards NVIDIA may have found the perfect match of price versus performance and this holds true in both the AGP and PCI-E version of this card.

So what makes the GeForce 6 series cards everyone darling now? It’s actually a combination of great features.  Topping the list has to be SLI Technology, who won’t want the ability to strap to identical video cards in their system and experience games like they have never been before?  Then there is the ability to encode and decode MPEG and WMV9 on chip with resolutions up to 1920 x 1080.  And finally the addition of advanced adaptive de-interlacing will make this series of cards an ideal choice for those die-hard Home Theater PC builders. These are not all of the features by any means, just the highlights, but I think you can understand now why this series card and the 6600 GT in particular are in such high demand right now.

The slot which will connect the SLI adapter to the second video card is seen hear, once it is in place it looks like a spacer bar.  The current number of motherboard that support two PCI-E x16 slot is very limited so it will be some time before we see a great many reviews on this feature.

There is one thing about it though the GeForce 6600 GT delivers enthusiast-class features and performance to the midrange $199 price point with its fast GDDR3 memory clocked at 500 MHz, and a screaming fast 500 MHz core clock. The GeForce 6600 GT is the only SLI-ready GPU in the mainstream segment, with full hardware support for NVIDIA’s new multi-GPU technology this alone makes it a very appealing choice for many gamers.

Below is a chart showing the various configurations available for the GeForce 6 series video cards. The biggest difference being that between the plain 6600 and 6800 Ultra with 400 MHz Core Clock Speed and 256-bit memory interface, but as always you will get what you pay for. The Gigabyte GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E is a happy medium between the high and low end of the spectrum, it does have a higher clock speed at 500 MHz but is somewhat restricted by its 128-bit memory interface. How restricted we will find out in our tests as we run it through our normal benchmarks to see what we can come up with for numbers.

Bundled Software and Accessories

The software that comes with the Gigabyte GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E includes.

• Driver installation disc, which also includes:
  • PowerDVD 5.0
  • V-Tuner2 Plus (Gigabyte's overclocking utility)
  • DVI-to-VGA adapter
  • Break-out box for S-Video and component video for use on HD-TV
     
• Full Version Games:
  • Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising
  • Thief: Deadly Shadows