Gigabyte 6600 256 Mb Turbo Force Video Card review

Videocards/VGA Reviews by piotke @ 2005-08-30

With the introduction of PCI express only a few high end VGA cards were available, now that we have low/mid range it?s time to see how they stack up to their big brothers. The 6600GT is a mid-range card, let?s find out if it is worth the asking price. Be prepared, because here comes the Gigabyte 6600 256 Mb Turbo Force !

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Introduction

Introduction

With the introduction of PCI express (PCIe) a lot of high end graphic cards entered the market. Cards valued at least over 500 euro. Now that the rush for such a new platform has dropped to a lower level, VGA card manufacturers started to bring out more and more budget minded cards.

While I was looking at the online shops for a new card for my brand new nForce 4 based AMD 939 setup, my eye spotted the Gigabyte 6600 256 Mb Turbo Force. All big names such as Nvidia 6600, 256 Mb, Turbo Force. Marketing talk I thought. So why not buy it and make a review of it?

Comtech was so kind to borrow us two other VGA cards. The Asus 6600GT and the Asus X800XT. This way I had some cards in my possession with a different price range. To give you an idea, at the time of writing these were the average pricings:

  • 6600 = low end = $100
  • 6600GT = mid end = $170-200
  • X800XT = high end = $450-500

    This data will be the red line through this article.

    Madshrimps (c)


    You can see that a 6600GT based VGA card costs ~1.7 times more. And the X800XT will empty your wallet even 4.5 times more. But is the performance increase similar? That's the question I asked myself while writing this short review.

    Just a few different tests should be enough to show the trend in this analysis.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Let's start by presenting today’s contestants.

    NVIDIA 6600 Chipset

    Madshrimps (c)


    Gigabyte 6600 specifications

    It costs a tad more then the average 6600 based card, because it has more (and faster) memory, but also a higher clocked core. Hence the Turbo Force part in the name. The Gigabyte comes with a fancy passive cooled heat-pipe heatsink, whisper quiet.


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    NVIDIA 6600 GT Chipset

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    Asus 6600 GT specifications

    The 6600 GT was and still is a very popular solution for the mid end market. Priced attractively and delivering decent power, it has found its place in many computers. And with the capability of SLI, you can increase performance enormously if you have the right motherboard.

    Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)
    Click for bigger picture ...






    ATI X800XT Chipset

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    Asus X800XT specifications

    The last card in today's test session is based on ATI's X800XT chip. Until recently (before the X850 series) it was top of the bill in ATI's camp. So we have high expectations. Also considered the price it should deliver some amazing results. I hope...


    Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)
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    Let’s compare their specifications:


    Asus EN6600GT/TOP/TD/128MAsus EAX800XT 2DT/P/256Gigabyte GV-NX66256DP
    ChipsetNvidia 6600 GTAti X800 XTNvidia 6600
    Memory128 Mb DDR3256 Mb DDR3256 Mb DDR
    Memory Clock1000 Mhz 1000 Mhz500 Mhz
    Core Clock500 Mhz500 Mhz450 Mhz
    Buswidth128 Bit256 Bit128 Bit
    Pixel Pipes8168


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