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XFX GeForce 6600 DDR-2 |
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Redefining the Budget Market |
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By Josh Walrath |
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Test Setup AMD Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2.4 GHz Tyan Tomcat K8E nForce 4 Motherboard 2 GB Patriot PC3200 DDR SDRAM @ 2:3:2:7 80 GB SATA Seagate 7200 RPM HD Chaintech AV710 Sound Card (VIA Envy 24) Toshiba DVD-ROM Antec NeoPower 480 PS Windows XP Pro SP2 Forceware 81.87 drivers AMD nForce 6.70 drivers
The DDR-2 card is quite a bit smaller and lighter than the 6600 GT from BFG below it. The cooling is not nearly as impressive either. For comparison I used the BFG 6600 GT OC, which is one of the fastest 6600 GT’s on the market. The latest Forceware 81.87 drivers were used, which give a good performance increase and compatibility to many new applications. It also enables expanded features with SLI and PureVideo functionality. I was not able to procure an ATI Radeon X1300 Pro for comparison. Results 3D Mark 2005 I used the latest version of this benchmark to get a baseline on these setups. While 3D Mark 2005 is not the end-all be-all, it is a good measure of the overall performance of a product.
At stock clock the DDR-2 gives a solid performance, but once overclocked it nearly reaches 6600 GT OC levels. While it may be a hair slower, the extra memory that the DDR-2 allows enables richer textures and effects to be used in current and upcoming games. Quake 3 Arena This is still a good benchmark mainly due to the vast quantity of games out there using the Quake 3 engine. I use the NV-15 level, which is a very high polygon count map that requires a lot of horsepower from both the CPU and GPU. This custom demo was run with high quality settings and 4X AA and 8X AF.
With only 128 MB of memory, the 6600 GT did not run this title with 4X AA. The standard and overclocked 6600 DDR-2 both handle this title without a problem, even at 1600x1200. Call of Duty: United Offensive The expansion to Call of Duty featured slightly improved graphics and models; as such it is a bit more strenuous on GPU’s. Using FRAPS I started the Bastogne level and ran through the first encounter with German troops and made it back to the jeep. This proved to be quite repeatable and gave some very good results. High quality settings were enabled as well as 2X AA and 8X AF.
The overclocked DDR-2 comes very close to GT OC performance, but even the stock clocked DDR-2 handles this title very well. 1600x1200 @ 2X AA and 8X AF may be a bit too choppy at times for some, as the frame rates did drop into the 20’s with the stock clocked product. Far Cry This was one of the first titles to include SM 3.0 functionality. When quality settings are set to Ultra, SM 3.0 is enabled. No AA and 8X AF are enabled, and the Regulator demo was played. HDR was not enabled.
Far Cry is a very shader heavy title which uses a variety of DX8 and DX9 functionality. SM 3.0 doesn’t add any new visuals, but it is supposed to collapse the amount of passes that certain shaders need over what PS 2.0 can do. During gameplay 1600x1200 was too choppy for all of these cards, but 1280 and below played just fine.
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Copyright 1999-2005 PenStar Systems, LLC. |
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