This engine is becoming dated and more CPU dependent as time goes by, but it is still an impressive game with quality visuals. Bench'emAll was used to collect performance results, which are based on three intensive botmatches.
Unreal Tournament 2004
The results are impressive for a 2-quad card. Performance holds up until finally giving way at 1600x1200 with 4X AA/16X AF and even then it remains playable. Some luck with overclocking might help in breaking the 60fps barrier. For the most part, these results are VERY similar to those in my review of the more expensive Gainward GeForce 6800.
Preferred Setting: 1280 X 1024 - 4X AA / 16X AF
Doom 3
Doom 3 will be moving graphics engines ahead the same way Quake 3 did back in the late 1990's. The lighting and shadowing coupled with the trademark id gameplay makes for a unique and sometimes fearful experience. Doom 3 is graphics intensive and is one of the reasons why many cash-strapped gamers are finally letting go of their beloved GeForce 3 or GeForce 4. Benchmark results are from the standard demo1 demo.
Doom 3
The results were unexpected since I figured a 128-bit memory bus graphics card would bog down under the high detail graphics setting. It did somewhat, but not enough to make a difference for the price of the card. Playability at 12x10 using AA and AF on an engine like Doom 3 is impressive.
Preferred Setting: 1280 x 1024 - 2X AA / 16X AF
Battlefield: Vietnam
Battlefield: Vietnam has been out for a while now and continues to provide lackluster performance on the previous generation GeForce FX when AA or AF is enabled. But with the GeForce 6 Series, NVIDIA gamers have been able to enjoy this title like most other games. The Quang Tri 1968 eight player botmatch was used with sound and AI at the lowest possible settings.
Battlefield: Vietnam
The BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC handles Battlefield: Vietnam as though it was a much more expensive graphics card. Looking back on my GeForce 6800 review, it is clear that the core clock and memory speeds really come into play in this game. Of course, performance bogs down a bit at 1600x1200 with AA and AF, but that is to be expected from a graphics card with 128MB of memory and a 128-bit memory interface.
Preferred Setting: 1280 X 960 - 2X AA / 16X AF
Counter-Strike: Source Stress Test
While not a game per-se, the Counter-Strike: Source Stress Test measures system performance and gives a pretty clear picture to the user as to whether or not their system can handle the Source Engine. Utilizing DirectX 9.0b features, the pixel and vertex shader effects are impressive.
Counter-Strike: Source Stress Test
Performance is outlandishly quick until the 128-bit memory bus bottleneck kicks in at 1280x1024 with 4X AA. Even so, frame rates only dip into the 50's. But for competitive gaming, a high frame rate is desirable.
Preferred Setting: 1280 x 1024 - 2X AA / 16X AF
OVERCLOCKING AND SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS
Although the BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC is overclocked out of the box, there is a good possibility that even more performance can be squeezed out of the card. Using Coolbits2 with the 71.20 drivers, I was able to stabilize the core at 585MHz and memory at 1.17GHz.
Overclocking Results
I used my preferred graphics settings to determine if the higher clock speeds would help playability. Unreal Tournament 2004 benefited across the board as I tested at other resolutions and AA/AF levels and found the overclock to provide an increase of 7-12fps.
A few valuable frames were gained in Doom 3 and overclocking smoothed out a few scenery jerks and jitters in BattleField: Vietnam. The Source Engine Stress also received a healthy increase in performance.
Moving on to the OnionMarks, it is clear that even at stock speeds, the BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC produces amazing results. With the overclock, the card marches once again right into GeForce 6800NU territory
CONCLUSION
First off, I would like to thank BFG Technologies for providing the review sample, and MikeC, owner of nV News, for the opportunity to review this great graphics card.
So is the BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC card worth the money? Absolutely.
The warranty, the build quality, the enhanced clock speed, the dual DVI out, the GPU and HSI bridge heatsinks, the effective and quiet cooling system, the low CPU overhead during video playback, the impressive 3D performance and the outstanding display output all add up to make it worth the small increase over the cost of a standard GeForce 6600 GT.
It doesn't run too hot, it's not too loud, the LED on the fan is pretty cool looking, and, well I could go on and on, but I won't. Get one for yourself and you will see. All in all I think that BFG's GeForce 6600 GT OC is one of those products that just...MAKES GAMERS HAPPY!
Please feel free to ask any questions or post any comments in this thread forum thread. Thanks for reading!
CHANGE LOG
This following is a list of changes that have been made to this review since it was originally published:
February 5, 2004 - Page 2: Editing Change - Added that memory clock speed was reduced to 177MHz to insure stability in lieu of relaxing memory timings to CAS2 3-3-6.
February 5, 2004 - Page 2: Editing Change - Reinfored the high quality 2D and 3D output on both DVI outputs.
