XFX 6600 DDR-2 Review, Page Five

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XFX GeForce 6600 DDR-2

Redefining the Budget Market

By Josh Walrath

Half-Life 2

Valve continually improves HL2 and Source, with the latest edition sporting their own version of HDR support. The original HL2 does not have any HDR effects, except for The Lost Coast, which is a quick add-on for HL2 owners. I used the same Helicopter/Lake area to make a new demo for HL2. HL2 is still a very good looking game, but it doesn’t nearly have the hardware requirements as F.E.A.R. I set all options to High Quality with 2X AA and 8X AF.

	6600 DDR-2	6600 DDR-2 OC	6600 GT OC
1024x768	60.28 fps	70.38 fps	75.65 fps
1280x960	49.94 fps	63.45 fps	62.34 fps
1600x1200	34.47 fps	39.54 fps	39.25 fps

All of the cards do very well in this game, but we can see that HL2 does appreciate the extra memory that the DDR-2 board brings. While the DDR-2 OC board was slightly behind the GT OC at 1024x768, it takes a small lead at the higher resolutions.

Doom 3

Doom 3 does not appear to have the demo playback issues that Quake 4 does, so I decided to keep this benchmark for further reviews. High quality was enabled as well as no AA and 8X AF.

	6600 DDR-2	6600 DDR-2 OC	6600 GT OC
1024x768	70.6 fps	82.5 fps	82.8 fps
1280x1024	49.6 fps	62.1 fps	64.2 fps
1600x1200	36.5 fps	45.9 fps	47.6 fps

Again we see essentially the same progression that we have expected throughout this review. The stock card holds its own through 1280x1024, but at 1600x1200 it gets a bit choppy. Both of the overclocked cards can handle smooth gameplay through 1600x1200.

Anisotropic Filtering

I used UT2004 to test the performance impact of enabling AF. High quality settings were used with trilinear filtering enabled at 1280x1024. A 12 bot match demo was played on DM-Antalus.

1280x1024 No AA	6600 DDR-2	6600 DDR-2 OC	6600 GT OC
0 AF	87.54 fps	101.17 fps	103.46 fps
2X AF	84.06 fps	99.47 fps	101.67 fps
4X AF	78.16 fps	95.15 fps	97.60 fps
8X AF	77.31 fps	94.32 fps	96.94 fps
16X AF	76.83 fps	93.88 fps	96.50 fps

Enabling AF does not have a huge performance impact, but the difference between 0AF and 8X AF on the stock 6600 DDR-2 does incur a 10 fps hit. Not huge, but 12% isn’t exactly small. The faster clocked 6600’s do not incur nearly as large of a hit. The jump from 8X to 16X is miniscule, but the overall results visually are awfully hard to see as well. As far as I am concerned, AF is a definite must for any game.

Antialiasing

I also used UT2004 to test the performance impact of using AA combined with AF. To get the cleanest image possible, both edge and texture antialiasing are needed. The same setup as above was used.

1280x1024 8X AF	6600 DDR-2	6600 DDR-2 OC	6600 GT OC
No AA	77.31 fps	94.32 fps	96.94 fps
2X	68.11 fps	83.60 fps	88.91 fps
4X	51.59 fps	62.78 fps	68.24 fps
8XS	24.35 fps	29.65 fps	36.04 fps

In UT 2004 4X AA is usable with all these cards. Once 8XS is hit, things get pretty choppy. In many older titles 8XS can probably be used without issue, and it would really help clear up the scene to a greater degree than just standard 4X AA and 8X AF. Unfortunately, in many new titles like Battlefield 2, AA is just not an option for cards in this class.

Next: Conclusion

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