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Nvidia Geforce 6600/6600GT Videocard Roundup
Nvidia Geforce 6600/6600GT Videocard Roundup - PCSTATS
PCstats is testing out nine Geforce 6600 and Geforce 6600 GT based videocards, in both AGP and PCI Express versions.
Filed under: Video Cards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Nvidia May 18 2005   M. Dowler  
Home > Reviews > Video Cards > Nvidia

Gigabyte GV-3D1

Every hardware roundup has to have one part that doesn't fit in with the others, and this is certainly the one! The Gigabyte GV-3D1 represents a unique solution to the troubling requirement for two identical videocards to run nVidia SLI: It puts two 6600GT cores on the same videocard, each with its own 128MB memory supply and an internal interface which mimics the SLI bridge connector. Each core runs at the default 500MHz clock speed, while the 1.6ns memory is clocked at a significantly faster than stock 1.12Ghz or 1120MHz.

Gigabyte GV-3D - PCI Express x16

Includes:

Users Manual, Driver CD, PowerDirector 3 CD, Joint Operations CD, Thief: Deadly Shadows CD, Component out breakout box, DVI to analog converter

Currently the Gigabyte GV-3D1 will only work with Gigabyte-manufactured SLI motherboards, as the SLI switch and BIOS are customized to allow each GPU on the card discrete access to eight lanes of PCI Express goodness from a single slot. According to Gigabyte it will not even work in single GPU mode with any other motherboard. We tested this out and found that it worked but only with one GPU.

The huge aluminium heatsink cools both cores and all the memory chips. It was somewhat louder than the other videocard thermal solutions in this review, not surprising considering its dual fans. The heatsink got quite hot during testing, up to 50C degrees. As you might imagine, this card requires extra power to operate, using a special 6-pin 12V connector that hooks up to a molex converter cable.

The Gigabyte GV-3D1 videocard is also considerably longer than the other models in this roundup, so tiny cases need not apply. the front connector still contains the typical trio of VGA, DVI and s-Video/breakout connectors.

Gigabyte intends to bundle the GV-3D1 card with its GA-K8NXP-SLI motherboard, and this is how we received our test version. The bundle includes a breakout box which is a video-out only type featuring both component and S-video outputs (and a handy velcro strip; also included are copies of Joint Operations: Typhoon rising and Thief: Deadly shadows as well as PowerDVD 5 and PowerCreator 3. A DVI-to-analog converter is tossed in for dual-monitor operation.

Overclocking: Initially, we had no luck at all in overclocking this card. Running in SLI mode, any attempt to overclock resulted in failure. Switching to non-SLI mode, we managed to reach speeds of 519MHz core and 1.23GHz memory.

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Contents of Article: Nvidia
 Pg 1.  Nvidia Geforce 6600/6600GT Videocard Roundup
 Pg 2.  ASUS Extreme N6600TOP/TD/128M/A
 Pg 3.  Gigabyte GVNX66T128D GeForce 6600GT
 Pg 4.  — Gigabyte GV-3D1
 Pg 5.  Albatron Trinity GeForce PC6600U
 Pg 6.  Albatron Trinity GeForce 6600GT AGP
 Pg 7.  Albatron Trinity GeForce 6600
 Pg 8.  MSI NX6600GT-VTD128 AGP
 Pg 9.  MSI NX6600GT-VTD128SP AGP
 Pg 10.  MSI NX6600GT-TD128E
 Pg 11.  Test System Specs, Benchmarks
 Pg 12.  Benchmarks: Codecreatures
 Pg 13.  Benchmarks: Aquamark 2.3
 Pg 14.  Benchmarks: Aquamark 3, Gunmetal 2
 Pg 15.  Benchmarks: X2: The Threat, UT2003
 Pg 16.  Benchmarks: Doom3
 Pg 17.  Conclusions - Which Card Comes out on Top?

 
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