Product: Inno3D GeForce 6600 DDR2
Manufacter: Inno3D
Supplied by: Inno3D
Price: $200 AUD (~150 USD)
Reviewer: erock
Review Date: 15th JAN 2006

Introduction:



Inno3D have built quite a reputation for quality graphic cards over the years. Today we get an oppurtinity to check out their GeForce 6600 DDR 2 model. The 6600 series has proved popular for budget conscious gamers that still want decent graphics and performance with the latest and greatest games. In this review we will take a look at the cards specs, its features and more importantly, benchmarks. So without further to do, lets get on with the review.


Above: Box shot front

Specifications & Features

• Powered by GeForce 6600 GPU
• 128 / 256mb versions
• Superscalar 8-pipe GPU architecture
• 0.11 micron process technology
• PCI-Express x16 interface support
• 8 Pixels Rendering Pipeline
• NVIDIA® SLI™ multi-GPU ready (For PCI-Express Edition only)
• NVIDIA® CineFX™ 3.0 engine
• NVIDIA® UltraShadow™ II technology
• NVIDIA® Intellisample™ 3.0 technology
• DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 support
• 64-bit floating point texture filtering and blending
• Full-speed 32-bit color precision
• NVIDIA® ForceWare™ Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
• NVIDIA® nView™ multi-display technology
• NVIDIA® Digital Vibrance Control™ 3.0
• 400MHz RAMDACs support 2048x1536 resolution at 85Hz
• Highest DVI output up to 1600x1200 resolution
• On-chip video processor
• Integrated full MPEG encode and decode support Integrated
  NTSC & PAL TV encoder output up to 1024x768 resolution
• Integrated HDTV encoder provides world-class HDTV-out functionality up to 1920x1080i resolutions
• DirectX 9.0 andL 1.5 optimizations and support

Above: Box shot back

• NVIDIA® CineFX™ 3.0 Engine : Full support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 Produces gaming effects on par with the hottest motion pictures. Combined with 128-bit studio-quality color provides high precision computation and produces the resulting image with best quality. NVIDIA® Intellisample™ 3.0 Technology : Intellisample's intelligent antialiasing captures a higher-resolution version of each image, then resizes and resamples it for output to your screen, reducing "jaggies" and smoothing away imperfections New rotated-grid antialiasing removes jagged edges for incredible edge quality Deliver unprecedented visual quality for resolutions up to 1600x1280 with antialiasing NVIDIA® UltraShadow™ II Technology : Enhances the performance of bleeding-edge games that feature complex scenes with multiple light sources and objects. Speed up the processing of shadows much quickly by discarding non-useful information Complex shadow effects are now available at high frame rates 64-bit Texture Filtering and Blending: Makes graphics more vibrant and lifelike Developers can easily create accurate effects such as iridescence, motion blur, and soft shadows New 16x anisotropic filtering adds clarity to extreme geometry The Ultimate Multi-Display Solution with nVIDIA® nView Display Technology : NVIDIA's nView hardware and software technology combination leverages nVIDIA's industry-leading hardware and software expertise to deliver multi-display functionality of immense flexibility. nView incorporates built-in attribute and performance tuning for each of the different display devices - including CRTs, Televisions, and flat panel LCDs - and provides for completely intuitive and flexible work environments. Dual, 400MHz RAMDAC's for display resolutions up to and including 2048x1536 Integrated NTSC/PAL TV encoder support resolutions up to 1024x768 without the need for panning with built-in Macrovision copy protection. DVD and HDTV-ready MPEG-2 decoding up to 1920x1080i resolutions DVI support for compatibility with next-generation flat panel displays with resolutions up to and including 1600x1200.

Whats in the box?


Above: Box contents

The box itself is fairly standard and nothing special, but who cares about the design of the box right? Its just big enough for the gear inside.ng, you will see the following contents:

• GeForce 6600 VGA Card
• Software Bundle CD - Drivers, 3DMark05, WinDVD 5, WinDVD Creator
• DVI/D-SUB adapter
• User Manual
• S-Video Cable
  

Above: Inno3D GeForce 6600 DDR2 Graphics card


Above: The card, software, S-Video Cable, manual, DVI/D-SUB adapter.


Above: Heatsink and fan cooling solution.



Inno3D have decided to go with a black PCB and standard heatsink / fan cooling. While this cooling setup will do the job, if your gonna be overclocking, you may want to buy a better 3rd party heatsink / fan solution. The 6600DDR 2 version we received was the PCI-X 256mb version and is SLi ready. Inno3D only provided us with one card so SLi benchmarking won't be happening in this review ;)

Test Bench:

AMD64 3200+
Albatron K8SLI, Bios R/8/25
Geil 1Gb PC3200
Inno3D GeForce 6600 DDR2 PCI-E
Seagate 80GB SATA
LG 16x DVD-RAM Drive
Windows XP Home SP2
Dell 2005FPW

Drivers Used:

ForceWare Release 80
Version: 81.98
Release Date: December 21, 2005
WHQL Certified

3DMark 2003 Results:

3DMark 2005 Results:

DOOM 3 :

Above: The highly system demanding Doom 3 performs quite well.

UT2004 :


Conclusion

The Inno3D GeForce 6600 DDR2 will set you back about $200 AUD and for its price, its worth every cent of the gaming goodness you will obtain from owning it. The benchmarks show that this card performs great even in the latest benchmarks and games, however, if you are a hardcore gamer that likes to crank every setting to the max at 1600 x 1200 you may want to buy a higher-end model. But lets face it, there is only so much performance you can squeeze out of a mere $200 video card. If your looking at building your first SLi setup, this card will give you the capability at an affordable price. The card is known to be a good overclocker, although, you may want to buy a better cooling setup when doing that.

Pros:

• Great value - About $200 AUD
• Highly recommended for the average gamer
• Supports SLi
• PCI-X 256MB DDR2
• Value to Performance ratio is great
• Good software bundle

Cons:

• A better cooling solution would be nice
• Hardcore gamers will desire more
  

Highly Recommended: 8.4 / 10

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