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 Contents
Today we have very interesting material. Above all, because it's the first review of GeForce 6600 on our web site. Not long ago, in mid August there has been launched a new series of video cards from NVIDIA intended to satisfy the growing requirements of gamers in the Middle End accelerators sector, that is within the 150-250 USD price range. Taking into account the progressive nature of innovations from Intel, namely PCI-Express, both ATI and NVIDIA release all their new video cards with hardware support for this bus only. This is despite the fact that the new platform has not yet bitten off even 1% of the market (in spring ATI boasted of mastering 40% of the market by autumn, now they claim 25% by the end of the year, in reality they will manage maximum 5%, I think). But as NVIDIA already has HSI bridge, which can easily operate both ways, it's only a matter of time and marketing interests to release AGP-based video cards with GeForce 6600 processor. Such products will appear soon. In general terms, as we have already found out before, NV43 aka GeForce 6600/6600GT is just a half of NV40 with some peculiarities. In the articles listed below you can read about NV40 as well as NV43.
Theoretical materials and reviews of video cards, which concern functional properties of the GPU
So, what are the peculiarities of NV43, which prevent us from stating that it's a sterling half of NV40? There is only one reason: it cannot write all 8 processed pixels at one cycle. That is, 8 rendering pipes produce 8 color values, but the memory buffer is written only 4 values at a cycle. And when the accelerator performs another operation within the same pass, the remaining 4 values are written at the second cycle. This leads to some drop in performance relative to the "pure 8-pipeline operations", especially it has its negative effect with AA. However, it's the only minus of this technology. Everything is OK in other respects. There is sterling support for all NV40 properties in terms of shaders, etc. But will it fair that well in the competition with c X700? The stands are filling up with fans. Let's introduce our hero. We have already reviewed the flagship of the series – 6600GT on the example of the reference card. Now let's look at its junior on the example of a video card from Leadtek. I guess there is no need in telling you about this famous brand, so let's get straight to the point.
Video card
As you can see, this card differs from its elder brother by a simplified PCB designed for slower DDR memory in TSOP package, no SLI support. Nevertheless, the card is equipped with Philips 7115 codec responsible for VIVO, and the bundle includes an appropriate adapter. 
And here is the graphics processor.
Let's look at the bundle.
And now, let's have a look at the box itself:
Installation and DriversTestbed configurations:
VSync is disabled. It should be noted that both companies have enabled trilinear filtering optimizations in their drivers by default.
Test resultsBefore giving a brief evaluation of 2D, I will repeat that at present there is NO valid method for objective evaluation of this parameter due to the following reasons:
What concerns the combo of our sample under review and Mitsubishi
Diamond Pro 2070sb, this card demonstrated the excellent
quality in the following resolutions and frequencies:
Test results: performance comparisonWe used the following test applications:
If you want to get the demo-benchmarks, which we use, contact me at my e-mail.
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Code Creatures
Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal II: The Awakening
But still, misfortunes never come alone...
RightMark 3D
It never rains but it pours... Sad but true.
TR:AoD, Paris5_4 DEMO
And it's sunless and rainy outside...
FarCry, demo01
The same picture. There is no need in detailed analysis. GeForce 6600 is no match against X700! Call of Duty, ixbt04
HALO: Combat Evolved
Again defeated and on the knees before the ATI product, having outscored only the competitor from its own camp, which performance with shaders had been leaving much to be desired for a long time. Half-Life2 (beta): ixbt07 demo
The same picture. Splinter Cell
Quake III Arena
It's a laborious lot... Yep, while the royal 6800 series is fine, NVIDIA maintains well its reputation, the workhorses must be working hard... But there is no output... Their competitor is flogging and elbowing them out of their positions. This crafty X700... Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Multiplayer)
You think the sun peeps out again? Nothing of the sort! GeForce 6600 is still wallowing in mud defeated. Its only salvation is its price. DOOM III
ConclusionsThus, what do we see? GeForce 6600 is in bruises and scratches, hit in all possible places. Let's call the emergency of distributors and those who dictate prices. Only they can save the child! Dear sirs, don't raise the prices! Let this accelerator live! And its price is $150. But considering that this handsome video card with bright FX 5900 in its heart is outscored, the price is actually OK. You should understand that X700 PRO costs about 200 USD so far, and thus their comparison is quite relative. We don't know yet how much X700 will be, and when it appears it may be too late: GeForce 6600 will recover and learn... So, we have too much of the unknown. In comparison with available PCI-E video cards, GeForce 6600 looks excellent! Very tasty! In comparison with the coming X700, it's a nothing. But when will this nearest future come? ATI keeps silence. It barely squeezed a couple of droplets of X700 PRO to the Japanese market (a couple of thousands, of course). There are a lot of pastures in Canada, one should graze cattle well instead of inventing cloned symbionts (for example, X700XT chips for X700 PRO cards). In this case the yield of milk will be good. Let's return to our muttons. This video card demonstrated excellent operating stability. And most importantly, it will please overclockers, because its chip managed to reach 430 (!) MHz (from the nominal 300!). The memory certainly didn't go higher than 330 MHz, but the chip capacity plays an increasingly more important role in the latest games. Quality... Just say "This one here is made by Leadtek", and you will hear the answer: "No tests necessary. Its quality is impeccable". And VIVO! Don't forget about it! To say nothing of Shaders 3.0. Though when they appear, this card will be receiving the pension certificate with fringe benefits from NVIDIA CEO. GeForce 6600 turned out too skinny and ill-fed against its juicy brother GeForce 6600GT. NVIDIA shouldn't have allowed this gap between their core frequencies (300 and 500 MHz). Besides, it cut down the memory bandwidth by half (550 and 1000 MHz). While the price difference is not that fundamental. In this respect ATI has a better selected frequency range, that's why X700 is victorious.
In our 3Digest you can find more detailed comparisons of various video cards.  Write a comment below. No registration needed!
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