XFX is a company that started making NVIDIA based video cards a couple of years ago. A relative newcomer as a manufacturer of video cards, XFX has made a name for itself as being one of the only companies that manufacture NVIDIA cards exclusively. XFX has a full lineup of NVIDIA's product offerings available for purchase including the 6200TC, the 6600GT I'm reviewing here, 6800GTs and 6800 Ultras and the soon to be announced next NVIDIA card, the 7800 series.
NVIDIA started life back in 1993 as a manufacturer of video cards. One thing about the video card market today is the chipset manufacturers are spread into a duopoly between NVIDIA and ATI. The other players in the market (Matrox, S3, XGI) make up less than 5% of the total video card market. NVIDIA had revenue last quarter approaching $600 million, a far cry from the days when they barely made $100 million in revenue a quarter.
Last year, NVIDIA announced their new generation video card chipset, the NV4x architecture. This architecture was the first video card to support Shader Model 3.0 and has been a big success for NVIDIA, especially compared to the previous generation architecture, the NV30. Models of the NV4x series include: 6200 with Turbo Cache, 6200, 6600, 6600GT, 6800, 6800GT, and the 6800 Ultra comprising the gamut of price points from $79 to 599 on the highest priced card the 512MB 6800 Ultra. Today I'm reviewing the 6600GT and the 6600GT in SLI mode.
