Sparkle
Sparkle is using the reference NVIDIA HSF, which in this case, wins a great deal of points. The NVIDIA reference cooling solution has rubber nubs around all four corners of the HSF solution. This adds stability to the part that many other cards in this review lack. Unfortunately, the spring tension isn't wonderfully high, so cooling is a little lower than what might be desired. The spacers may add stability, but they also make it so that in order to get really good contact for cooling, the part would need to be pressed down harder than it currently is.
There were a couple of vendors who sent us "press samples" that were clocked at non-shipping clock speeds. Sparkle is included in this group, but we've asked them to only send us products that we can buy on the shelves. The part that we have in our labs boots up at 507/550, but we clocked it higher than that, easily.
You have to wonder who made the decision that seven MHz and a tiny bit of memory bandwidth was really worth sending us a press sample when we asked them not to do so. Because of that, we also can't be sure that the components that went into the part weren't binned beforehand - the 2ns DDR3 memory easily hit 610MHz.
Getting 2ns memory to clock that high is obviously not impossible. It can happen by chance (we've seen it before on earlier parts that used it), but we'd rather have no doubts.
At the same time, we asked for shipping parts and this is what we received. We'll report all the information that we have along with the numbers that we get and let the readers make the call.
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1q3er5 - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
errr weird how the albatron despite its so called HSF mounting problem scored so high on all the tests albeit a bit loud and didn't get an award !Also looks like LEADTEK changed the design of the board of the bit
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a6600_gt...
They added a heatsink on the RAM and you may also notice that the shroud now extends right over the other chips on the card.
miketus - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Hi, has anyboby experience with Albatron 6600GT for AGPgeogecko - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
Personally, I'd be willing to spend the extra $15-20 to get a decent HSF on these cards. Of course, the first one I buy will go in an HTPC, which will all be passively cooled, so the HSF in this case doesn't matter, because I'll just be removing it.However, for my PC, I sure would like a decent quality HSF. It would stink to have a $200 card burn up in your PC because of a $10 HSF setup.
WT - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
Interesting that GigaByte used a passive HSF on their 6800 card (with great results), but went with a craptastic fan on the 6600GT. I have an MSI 5900 and didn't want to settle for the cheesy MSI 5900XT cards HSF setup, so we are seeing the same thing occur with the 6600GTs .... cut costs by using a cheaper HSF.Excellent article .. I found it answered every question I had left on the GT cards, further convincing me to buy the 6800 series.
DerekWilson - Sunday, December 12, 2004 - link
#49 -- it was a problem with our sample ... the actual issue was not a design flaw, but if the design (of most 6600 GT cards) was different, it might have been possible for our sample to have avoid breakage.That's kind of a complicated way of saying that you should be alright as long as you are careful with the card when you install it.
After it's installed, the way to tell if you have a problem is to run a 3D game/application in windowed mode. Open display properies and click on the system tab. Hit the advanced button and select the NVIDIA tab. select the temperature option and if you see temperatures of 90 degrees C and higher, you probably have a problem.
if your temp is lower than that you're fine.
Vico26 - Sunday, December 12, 2004 - link
Derek,was the 6600 GT MSI a broken piece, or is there a problem with the HS design? Plz let me know, as I bought the MSI card on the same day as you published the article. Now, I am shocked, and I would like to find a solution - new cooling system? Am I able to install it (I m not a sort of professional)?
Anyway many thanks, I should have waited a day...
DerekWilson - Sunday, December 12, 2004 - link
http://www.gfe.com.hk/news/buy.aspNyati13 - Sunday, December 12, 2004 - link
What I'd like to know is where are the Galaxy 6600GTs available? I've looked at some e-tailers that I know of, and searched pricewatch and e-bay, and there aren't any Galaxy cards for sale.geogecko - Sunday, December 12, 2004 - link
Well, I actually meant to say something in that last post.Anyway, short and sweet. That's the way I like these articles. Who wants to spend more than about 15-30 minutes to find out which card is best for them.
I do think that the HDTV thing could have been looked at, but other than that, it's a great article.
geogecko - Sunday, December 12, 2004 - link