Best Geforce 6600GT

[TRDCorolla1]

The Asus won't have any problems adapting to the Gigabyte motherboard though? I heard that PCIe technology is so new that some motherboards may have problems when choosing a PCIe graphics card from another manufacturer.

 

[DarkBlade1]

Nope.. No, that is only on SLi boards, they need to be from the same manufacturer so the drivers are the same. You dont have SLi, so go with ASUS. They make great PCIe GPUS!!!

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Great, thanks for the update. I thought of going the SLi route, but the motherboard cost too much plus I have to buy an additional video card which add more to the overall cost of the system.

I'm considering the Asus because of the overwhelming opinions regarding this manufacturer, but what about MSI? I'm looking at their PCIe 6600GT video card and it looks pretty good.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=14-127-147&DEPA=1

It's got the heat sink for the memory and the processor (actually a one piece heatsink design). I was reading the review and someone said the one piece heatsink design help dissipate the heat evenly. It also has overclocking potential too. I guess the drivers it comes with it has like an auto-overclocking button you can click to maximize it's performance.

...oh and what's the difference between DDR3 and GDDR3? ANy significant boost from one to another?

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Apparently, GDDR3 is capable of higher clock speeds at lower power consumption so it doesn't run too hot unlike the DDR2 and DDR3. However there is one drawback when comparing GDDR1 to GDDR3, and that is the CAS Latency's. Due to GDDR3 being able to operate at such extreme frequencies the CAS Latency has been increased to maintain stability. Therefore at the same working frequency GDDR1 will be ever so slightly faster then GDDR3.

 

[The_Necromancer1]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2295
it bencmarks diferent manufactorers of 6600gt's the Albatron
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-170-073&depa=0 it's $210 but has VIVO.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

I wonder why Asus wasn't tested? According to that site, they said "Chaintech and Albatron missed Editor's Choice because they didn't have any stabilization on their heatsinks. The problems that inflicted Gigabyte and MSI could just as easily have happened to them. "

They're good manufacturers with very good results claimed by Anandtech's tests. I notice all the cards have a connector at the top of the card. Is that for SLi capablility?

Anandtech likes MSI a lot, but the heatsink mounting was not properly set which may cause heating problems. I don't think MSI will make all their graphics card like that. Maybe the one they tested just happened to be loose or they tinkered with it so much that they could've knocked it loose by accident. I've had MSI graphics board before and had MSI heatsink mounting kits on chipsets for my motherboard as well and they all made a tight connection with the processors. I'm not worried about it overheating. I"ll put an exhaust blower right underneath the card just in case.