Galaxy
We haven't had a Galaxy card in our labs before, and we were happy to see a card with a custom-round HSF attached very firmly after all the loosely attached rectangular solutions that we had the pleasure of handling. The springs on the hardware are much tighter than on the other solutions that we've seen, and the shape of the heatsink doesn't give us enough leverage when we press on it to pop it off the GPU. Though it is still possible to twist the HSF around the axis created by the two spring pin mounts, it is something that a consumer would have to try to do.Since this card has no shroud on its fan, this will also sound different than some of the other solutions that we've seen. Shrouds can help to direct airflow on larger heatsinks, but since this cooling solution doesn't try to cool the RAM as well as the core, a small circular design is fine.
We were happy with this card's ability to stay cool at idle and load. The only downside that we saw was the board's overclocking performance. Galaxy sent us this part at a pre-overclocked 525/550. We originally thought this was a press sample card, as the packaging materials that came with the box indicated a 500/500 clock speed. On the contrary, Galaxy has informed us that all of their 6600 GT products are shipping at 525/550 clock speeds. In the end, this part was our worst overclocker, which is a surprising combination when talking about our coolest part. It really could have been luck of the draw as the worst case GPU and worst case RAM configuration of the bunch, but that does seem like an awful bit of luck.
If you aren't planning to overclock from stock, this is absolutely a wonderful 6600 GT option. For someone who needs good cooling and low noise in their case, Galaxy is top notch. Since this product comes with added performance at no extra hassle, it's definitely a top pick in our books.
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geogecko - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
#33. I agree completely. That's why I'm curious about the HDTV output. I want to build an HTPC that is somewhat future-proof, and if that is the case, then I need the HDTV Out feature to work. From a review on newegg.com's web site on the XFX card, he couldn't seem to get and HDTV Out to work with the card.NVDVD would also be a plus if it was included, but I doubt it. I sent an e-mail to tech support over at XFX, asking these particular questions. Hopefully, I'll get an answer.
jamawass - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
Well there's more to a graphics card than gaming. The 6600 series is causing quite a stir in the htpc community because of the video decoding capabilites and hdtv output. It would've been helpful if the reviewer had mentioned the various manufacturers' suppport for HDTV output out of the box, which cards come with the NDVD codec, component adapter etc.bigpow - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
-> hex value 3 = decimal value 3geogecko - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
Great article Derek. Been looking for a 6600GT round up article for a while now.Question though. A few of these cards come with an HDTV cable, which, I guess I'm a little confused to what this actually is. I prefer the XFX card, because of the dual DVI outputs (and no need to overclock the card). It doesn't list as coming with an HDTV cable, so I'm wondering, what is the impact on not having this cable? What is the cable? Can't one usually just hook up a DVI cable to an HDTV?
Spacecomber - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
Nice round-up, and your bringing attention to the potential problems with some of the heatsinks is very much appreciated.Maybe as a follow up we need a round-up of some after-market heatsinks for the 6600GT.
Any reason to assume that these conclusions reached for the PCIe cards do or do not apply to the AGP versions? I know the AGP versions typically have their heatsinks set on a diagonal in order to accomodate the bridge chip.
Space
arswihart - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
my last comment was in response to #25#27 - Derek is talking about his "IT friendly" list, those cards he felt had the most reliable hsf implementation
arswihart - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
it does consistently lead in performance, worth noting by all means, but also, as it was mentioned in the review, these cards probably all perform even better on an nforce4, and the rank and file in performance among these cards might be a little different on an nforce4but I would definitely get an arctic cooler for the albatron anyways (if a compatible one is released) to quiet it down, that fan on it is tiny, thin, and loud
Houdani - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
On the last page [Final Words] you are listing why some cards aren't worthy of an Editor's Choice award. The next to last paragraph states:"XFX doesn't make the list because..."
But, ummm, isn't XFX the Silver choice?
Aquila76 - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
I know the Albatron didn't have a great mounting mechanism, but it was better than many of the othersAquila76 - Friday, December 10, 2004 - link
Why wasn't the Albatron given any medal? It has the best OC, best or near best performance in all the tests, and great temps even under load with the high OC. So the fan is a little noisier than the rest, is that any reason to dirt on this card?