Before getting into 3D performance, I would first like to mention a few of the things that have made this card a pleasure to review.
Quiet and Cool
As a result of its ultra-thin fin copper coolers and quiet, but effective fan, the GPU idled around 35-38C. A peak temperature of 55C was reached during Counter-Strike: Source clan matches.
Dual-DVI
I really like my 20" Dell Trinitron CRT, but I am sure there are gamers out there looking for a dual DVI graphics card at the right price.
Crisp Image Quality
The BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC's dual 400MHz RAMDAC produced the best 2D and 3D image quality of all the graphics cards I have recently used on BOTH DVI outputs! The graphics cards include the GeForce4 Ti 4200, Radeon 9700, GeForce 5700 Ultra, GeForce 5800 Ultra, and GeForce 5900XT. I also hooked up my friends NEC 17" LCD and he was very impressed with the improvement over his Gainward GeForce 5900XT. He even mentioned that it looked like he had a brand new, higher quality LCD.
TV-Out and DVD Playback
TV-Out to a mid-range 27" Samsung resulted in very good image quality. DVD playback using the included NVDVD software looked great and utilized about 20% of the CPU at full screen.
Extra Touches
To ensure the heatsinks are level, shims are placed on the GPU and HSI. The GPU heatsink is copper and the thin fin design dissipates heat efficiently. The cooling system is a high quality solution and works very well. All of these items add up to make a great graphics card. As you check out the performance figures on the next page, “worth the money” is an understatement.
Here are a few pictures of the graphics card.
BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC
The circuit board is colored in BFG blue and uncluttered.
BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC
The BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC is equipped with Samsung's GDDR3 2.0ns memory modules, which are laid out in a diagonal position due to the space taken up by the HSI bridge. GDDR3 memory has a low power operating requirement and does not need any specialized cooling.
BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC
The fan is equipped with a blue LED, which is hard to spot in these pictures. The LED generates a blue glow and looks pretty cool when it's running.
BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC
Here's a picture of NVIDIA's new nifty output dongle, which supports HD, s-video, and composite signals.
Breakout Dongle
Let's get ready to find out how the BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC performs in a few of today's more demanding games and applications.
I suppose my system could be classified as a "high-end midrange". The Socket 939-based Athlon 64 3000+ processor has become well-know for its overclocking potential and I have been fortunate to reach clock speeds around the level of the 3800+ and 4000+ models.
Memory clock speed was knocked down a notch to 177MHz to insure stability. The hard drives are nothing special (no RAID), the sound card is aging fast, and the PSU is not known for its performance, although I've had good luck with PowerMagic models that have a minimum of 18A on the 12v rail.
Although newer ForceWare beta drivers have surfaced, version 71.20 was used because it seemed to be the "flavor of the month" in terms of image quality and performance. The newer ForceWare drivers feature a reworked control panel that may take some getting used to, but it's basically the same animal as the previous versions.
