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@ 2007/01/05I recently downgraded my main computer's video card from a 6800GT AGP to 6600GT so a friend could use it for his gaming system
The 6600GT I got in return was an Asus version clocked at 520/1100; The stock cooling was nothing too impressive, loud at full speed, at the GPU was running hot under load. I had a Zalman VF700 Fatality lying around from my previous GPU cooler roundup and decided to install it.
The AGP 6600GT uses a small bridge chip which causes the nvidia GPU to be orientated a bit different, 45° angle to left compared to the PCIe version; this means that not all after market coolers will fit this AGP version. The VF700 coped well, I couldn't use the memory heatsinks, but since the stock cooling didn't cover them either, I don't expect any overheating problems, as the VF700 provides plenty of airflow to the PCB and memory chips.
The test system consisted of:
* Coolermaster ATCS 200 Case with Coolermaster 550W (120mm equipped) PSU.
* Case cooling 1x92mm fan in the front - custom mounted
* A64 3000+ with TTIC NPH AM2 Cooler modded with a 92mm fan;
* MSI K8N Neo motherboard with 2x512Mb PC3200 Ram
* 2x200GB Maxtor SATA HDDs
* Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Deluxe sound card
The 6600GT snapped in place easily with room to spare as the previous card (6800GT) was longer than this baby. Without the VGA fan running at ~50cm distance from the front dBA meter measured ~41dBA; room ambient is ~38dBA. Room temperature during testing was ~22°C.
Stock cooling in 2D mode (fan at 25%) measured 41.7dBA, quite good actually; in 3D mode (100%) it became a noticeable 46.7dBA and the fan noise was quite irritating. The ambient temp probe on the 6600GT measured 48°C, the GPU was running at 77°C under load.
Time for some Fatality action, the VF700 comes with a 5/12v cable splitter, I knew that at 12v the fan would be too noisy so I immediately hooked it up with the 5v setting -- noise measurent of 42.5dBA makes it a tiny bit noisier then stock cooling in 2D, but it won't increase when playing games, maximum load temperatures were now 33°C ambient (-15°C) and 52°C on the GPU (-25°C!). There is no doubt that the VF700 is a capable cooler for mid-range VGA cards, and this just proves it
The 6600GT I got in return was an Asus version clocked at 520/1100; The stock cooling was nothing too impressive, loud at full speed, at the GPU was running hot under load. I had a Zalman VF700 Fatality lying around from my previous GPU cooler roundup and decided to install it.
The AGP 6600GT uses a small bridge chip which causes the nvidia GPU to be orientated a bit different, 45° angle to left compared to the PCIe version; this means that not all after market coolers will fit this AGP version. The VF700 coped well, I couldn't use the memory heatsinks, but since the stock cooling didn't cover them either, I don't expect any overheating problems, as the VF700 provides plenty of airflow to the PCB and memory chips.
The test system consisted of:
* Coolermaster ATCS 200 Case with Coolermaster 550W (120mm equipped) PSU.
* Case cooling 1x92mm fan in the front - custom mounted
* A64 3000+ with TTIC NPH AM2 Cooler modded with a 92mm fan;
* MSI K8N Neo motherboard with 2x512Mb PC3200 Ram
* 2x200GB Maxtor SATA HDDs
* Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Deluxe sound card
The 6600GT snapped in place easily with room to spare as the previous card (6800GT) was longer than this baby. Without the VGA fan running at ~50cm distance from the front dBA meter measured ~41dBA; room ambient is ~38dBA. Room temperature during testing was ~22°C.
Stock cooling in 2D mode (fan at 25%) measured 41.7dBA, quite good actually; in 3D mode (100%) it became a noticeable 46.7dBA and the fan noise was quite irritating. The ambient temp probe on the 6600GT measured 48°C, the GPU was running at 77°C under load.
Time for some Fatality action, the VF700 comes with a 5/12v cable splitter, I knew that at 12v the fan would be too noisy so I immediately hooked it up with the 5v setting -- noise measurent of 42.5dBA makes it a tiny bit noisier then stock cooling in 2D, but it won't increase when playing games, maximum load temperatures were now 33°C ambient (-15°C) and 52°C on the GPU (-25°C!). There is no doubt that the VF700 is a capable cooler for mid-range VGA cards, and this just proves it
