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Chaintech GeForce 6600GT AGP Graphics Card Review

April 19, 2005
Reviewer: Jedd
Editor Rating:

Company:

Chaintech Inc., www.chaintech.com.tw

Price:

$195 US.

Ratings

Price:
Install/Setup:
Usability:
Support:
Average Rating:

Pros:

Great value with exceptional performance.
Included software bundle adds even more value.

Cons:

Memory components are not directly cooled with the GPU fan.

Getting Started

A few weeks ago we were fortunate enough to take a Chaintech GeForce 6600GT graphics card with us to game on at PDX LAN. The gaming was superb on this little gem. At first we had a few issues with the video, but a quick chipset driver update from nVidia and we were up and running in no time.

This is the 128MB AGP version of the 6600GT. So if you aren't quite ready for the jump to PCI Express but need a decent graphics card upgrade, this is definitely a good option. As with any of the Chaintech products we have reviewed, you get good quality at a great price. It comes packaged with the normal driver cds, power cables, VGA to DVI adapter, video adapter cables, and a software bundle that includes a copy of WinDVD 5, WinDVD Creator 2, WinRip 2.1, Adobe Photoshop Album, Home Theater 2.1 Lite, DVD Copy 2 Lite, Chaintech’s Game Pack (demo versions of Age of Wonders2, Serious Sam2, Rally Trophy, Max Payne and Tropico). Some retail versions even come packaged with a full retail version of Painkiller. Once again adding great value for what you actually pay.

The PCB is colored the standard Chaintech blue we are accustomed to. There is a nice looking, oversized GPU cooler that does a great job at keeping the GPU cool, but unfortunately it does not make direct contact with the memory components. You cannot see this in the pictures, but this could prohibit good overclocking abilities by not cooling the memory sufficiently as things heat up when you overclock the memory. And although we will not report any overclocking results, we will be anxious to see if we do see any issues when overclocking it in the lab down the road.

Click on picture to enlarge image

Detailed Specifications

Chip/Clock Speed	nVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT / 500MHz
Memory Configuration	128MB 128-bit GDDR3
Connectors	1 x VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) 1 x TV-Out(S-Video / Composite) 1 x DVI
Bus Interface	AGP 8x
Max Resolution	2048x1536@85Hz
TV Tuner	N/A
ViVo	N/A
Accessories	HDTV Cable DVI to VGA Adapter Power Cable S-Video Cable (150cm) Manual Drivers CD
System requirements	Intel Pentium III, AMD Athlon or compatible CPU 64MB System Memory or above CD-ROM Requires AGP 8x slot compliant motherboard
3D Acceleration Features	NVIDIA CineFX 3.0 Technology Powers the next generation of cinematic realism. Full support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 enables stunning and complex special effects. Next-generation shader architecture delivers faster and smoother gameplay. 64-Bit Texture Filtering and Blending Based on the OpenEXR technology from Industrial Light and Magic, NVIDIA's 64-bit texture implementation sets new standards for image clarity and quality through floating point capabilities in shading, filtering, texturing, and blending. NVIDIA UltraShadow II Technology Enhances the performance of bleeding-edge games, like id Software's Doom III, that feature complex scenes with multiple light sources and objects. Second-generation technology delivers more than 4X the shadow processing power over the previous generation. Intellisample 3.0 The industry's fastest antialiasing delivers ultra-realistic visuals, with no jagged edges, at lightning-fast speeds. Visual quality is taken to new heights through a new rotated grid sampling pattern. Vertex Shaders 3.0 Pixel Shaders 3.0
Operating Systems Support	Windows XP/2000

Benchmark Test Results

Once again, just for comparison, we include a few benchmark results. The Chaintech GeForce 6600GT graphics card was added to our test system which is made up of the following:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Socket 754
Thermaltake Venus 12
Chaintech VNF3-250 nForce3
2x512 MB Corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPRO (2-2-2-5 timing)
1 Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000 RPM SATA Drive
Liteon SOHC-532K 52X32X52X16 DVD-ROM/CDRW Combo Drive
Liteon SOHW-1673 16X Dual Layer Dual Format DVD Burner
Windows® XP SP1
ForceWare Driver version 71.84

Benchmark Scores

3DMark03 (3.6.0): 7780
3DMark05 (1.2.0): 3233
Aquamark3: 54,452
PCMark04 (1.3.0): 4218
Doom 3: 82.8 fps

Adding It All Up

The Chaintech GeForce 6600GT is a top notched product. Once again Chaintech hits the sweet spot of great performance at a bargain price. It's not a 6800, but for half the price of one you definitely do not get half the performance. This card games great on CS:Source, Need For Speed Underground 2, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Far Cry, Half Life 2, and any other demanding graphics game. If our past experience is any indication, you should also be able to squeeze a bit more performance out of this card by doing some overclocking of both the GPU core and the memory, thus making the low price even more worthwhile.

Because of the excellent quality at a tremendously low price, we are awarding the Chaintech GeForce 6600GT AGP graphics card the UpgradAdvisor.com Recommended Upgrade Seal of Approval!!!

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