PNY GeForce 6600GT DirectX 9 VCG6600GAPB 128MB 128-Bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card

Comments: I just upgraded from my 5900xt that i had flashed with a 5950 bios that scored 1220 in 3DMark05. I sold the 5900xt on e b a y for $50, so the $50 bucks it cost to upgrade makes this the deal of the year. With my new 6600gt I scored 3281 with 3DMark05 on first try. Looks like this baby will oc pretty good too!! Basically i could bump up a couple settings in BF2 and turn AA on to 4x and it plays like my 5900xt on low settings. Not a huge upgrade but definetly worth the $xx it cost me to upgrade. I ordered on thanksgiving and received it at 10 am on monday. Super fast shipping, thanks newegg. Comes with dual dvi output and also HDTV component out.

Pros: Very fast video card for the price. Normally gets better FPS and synthetic scores then even the Radeon 9800XT. Temperature monitoring. I did not overclock mine yet, but it should have good potential.

Cons: Thanks to the temperature monitoring on this card, I was able to see that it would idle at 80 degrees celcius... WAY TO HOT. I pulled the heatsink/fan off, wiped off the thermal compound and put some artic silver on before reattaching it to the video card. It now idles at about 48 degrees. I should not have had to do this though. The separate smaller heatsink next to the main one does not get any airflow from the fan, so it gets very hot still. All that PNY had to do to prevent this is allow the main heatsink to exhaust some air on that side of the heatsink. As of now, it is blocked off and there is no way to fix it unless you want to replace the entire heatsink/fan combo. I would recommend buying a slot fan to make sure enough air gets to this video card.

Overall Review: Good card for the price. Watch the temp though. It may be that some of those fans are loud because the high temps are forcing it to run at top speed. The fan on mine was not all that loud. Make sure you have good airflow in your case if you want to use this card.

Pros: 6 series GPU with respectable pipelines for A LOT cheaper price Best bet for those still rocking AGP but don't feel like shelling out the money, budget/mid-level machines. Supposely an okay overclocker with aftermarket cooling (that is, any 6600GT). GDDR3 memory. Dual DVI. (Comes with two DVI-VGA adapter too). 2D quality looks just as good as the old Radeon 9800 Pro. On-die GPU temperature monitoring. Handy for those that need it. HDTV/Component/S-Video/RCA Video Output capability - comes with s-video cable Great for OpenGL games, works fairly well still on latest games, (Doom3, Quake3, CoD2, etc.) Price, Price, Price. Bang for the buck. Hands down.

Cons: Super loud fan noise. It is the loudest fan in my box. For those that are running a quiet machine, you will have to consider spending more for aftermarket cooling. Not really an option for a HTPC box if you're planning to put one in (especially a restrictive box that can't accept an aftermarket cooler). Aftermarket cooler choices are limited due to the angle in which the chips are located (due to PCI-E to AGP bridge chip). Depending on what you're upgrading from, you may not see that much performance increase. Lack of any specific software, although this doesnt really matter. Card's been out a year, and driver support can probably be better. I understand that this is a fast pace, competitive field, but if you're buying a product that gets left behind in driver updates/support, it can get frustrating.

Overall Review: As mentioned, this thing is noisy. It's been a few days and it's driving me nuts already. The Zalman VF700 fits on this graphic card, but it will stick out a little bit, so for those of you with tight fitting case, it may not be an option. I upgraded from a Radeon 9800 Pro, so unless I'm playing some of the specific game listed above, the performance increase isnt too noticable (probably CPU limited in some aspect too). Been using ATI's setup for too long, not really use to the nvview dual mode, which requires a reboot for option to show up. If you need a quiet setup, and can't afford to spend the extra money, you may want to shop around a bit more or consider other options (ie: just wait till you upgrade to a PCI-E board). Overall, just consider your options a bit before you purchase any upgrades. I'm fairly certain I'll enjoy this card even more once my VF700-Alcu comes. System spec: mobile athlon xp @ 2.3 ghz, 1 gb ddr400, nforce2 ultra w/ soundstorm, hitachi 7200r

Comments: l just installed it (coming from a fx5200) and the difference is mind blowing!! l went from struggling in 800 x 600 everything on low in BF2 to Med/High settings on 1024 x 768 and its silky smooth! Only negative l can think of now is the fan noise. My psu fan was barely audible but now this fan is all that you can hear. Actually there is another negative aspect to me buying it....l ordered it on the 22nd from newegg and starting TODAY if you bought it from the 23rd and on you get a $40 rebate...

Pros: Great value. $xxx after rebates when I got it last month

Cons: Loud fan. Can turn down for 2D using readily downloadable tweaking software, but don't want to turn down for 3D.

Overall Review: Make sure to get at least a 300W power supply or else you'll have problems. Tuns Half Life 2 w/o any problems at XGA and all features turned on (2.8 P4 HT). Great value for price.

Pros: Great manufacturer support

Cons: DOA-Booted to logon screen and locks up. Tried it on three different PC's with better(450w) power Supply then mine (300w). No luck.

Overall Review: If your thinking about this card, check your Power Supply, I wouldn't recommend tring it without at least a 400w supply with a 17a rating to the 12v motherboard cable.

Pros: This thing is a beast. Battlefield 2 at all high settings, almost no jitters. Aquamark 3: 53,000 3dMark05: 3200

Cons: Can't think of any =)

Overall Review: THIS THING IS AWESOME

Pros: I bought this card to replace my MSI 9550 flashed to a 9600pro. I thought I'd be able to use that for another 3 months or so, unfortunately it died on me so I bought this card since it was a good deal. My 3dmark05 score has nearly doubled from about 1650 to 3200 and my 3dmark03 score is over 7k compared to about 3.4k. Huge score improvements all around. I can run BF2 pretty smoothly at 1280x1024 with everything on high. However I've only got a chance to run it with 1.12 and supposedly that patch hurts performance. I can also run NFSU2 at 1280x1024 with everything on high smoothly. I haven't tested too many other games yet. Great Bang for the Buck.

Cons: Only 128bit memory bandwidth, not that I'm too concerned with that. A 6800 might have been better, but considering that this was considerably cheaper than the best 6800 deal that I've seen in the recent past $100 vs $150 I think it was a great deal.

Overall Review: System Specs: AMD 64 3400+ 1gb Kingmax Valueram 160gb SATA Harddrive 120gb PATA Harddrive PNY 6600GT 128mb