Gigabyte GeForce 6600GT Video Card Review :: The Card

Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D
Brand	Gigabyte
Model	GV-NX66T128D
Graphics Chip	NV43
Graphics Memory Type	DDR3
Memory (MB)	128
Graphics Core Clock (MHz)	500
Memory Clock (MHz)	500
Memory Speed (ns)	2.0
RAMDAC Frequency (MHz)	Dual 400
Active Cooling on Graphics Chip	Yes
Heatsink on Memory	No
Video Capture	Yes
System Health Monitoring	No
Ports
Dual Monitor Support	Yes
VGA Out	DVI-D-Sub
Video In and Out	S Video Out, S Video In, Composite Out
Package and Support
Printed Manual	Yes
Driver CD	Yes
Performance Tool Software	Yes
Major Games	Joint Operations, Thief Deadly Shadows
Major Software	No
VR Glasses	No
DVD Player Software	PowerDVD 5
Video Recording Software	No

One of the big issues that I have with video cards today is that they often take up two slots and require extra power over that provided by the AGP or PCI Express slot. ATI's X850XT PE and its NVIDIA counterpart, the 6800 Ultra take up the PCI Express X16 or AGP slot and the adjacent PCI slot. Gigabyte's 6600GT takes up one slot and is about 1.5 inches longer than the PCI Express X16 slot on a Foxconn 925 board I use for testing. It still blocks a memory slot, but fitting it in a small form factor case is a breeze. Another plus is the lack of a need to plug in another power cable.

The cooling on the Gigabyte 6600GT is a standard 11 fin fan that covers the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) of the NV43. The heatsink covers about 50% of the PCB, without covering the memory chips. Interestingly, Gigabyte decided not to need cooling on the memory, though it runs at 500 MHz (I don't double DDR or DDR3 speed).

Fan

3/4 View

There are 4 32MB Tiny BGA 2.0ns memory modules on the Gigabyte 6600GT PCB. As the memory is clocked at the maximum rated speed, there isn't likely to be much room for overclocking of the card. In testing the card I was able to over clock the card to 600MHz, which is pretty rocking.

Rear

The input/output block on the right side of the PCB is standard for most NVIDIA and ATI cards around today. From the top is a TV-Out, then a DVI then the D-Sub connector. Using 2 CRT monitors is possible using a DVI-I to D-Sub adapter included in the package.