Conclusion

NVIDIA’s GeForce 6600 GT AGP is the unquestioned price/performance leader at the $200 price point, there’s just nothing else out there that comes close to touching it in terms of speed or feature set at that price.

ATI’s closest equivalent for the moment is the RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB. In our GeForce 6600 GT AGP Performance Preview article, the GeForce 6600 GT AGP delivered nearly double the performance of RADEON 9800 PRO in many cases, and was even capable of outperforming ATI’s 256MB RADEON 9800 XT in numerous situations. ATI eventually plans to counter with their 12-pipe RADEON X800 card, however it will likely be months before AGP variants of these cards ever see the light of day (assuming if ATI doesn’t scrap their plans entirely).

So with this in mind, who takes the crown in our GeForce 6600 GT AGP roundup? BFG.

The BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC ships at the highest clock frequencies we’ve seen in a GeForce 6600 GT card. The graphics core is clocked at 525MHz, 25MHz faster than the other cards, while the memory also operates at 525MHz, a stratospheric 70MHz over stock GeForce 6600 GT AGP clocks. This allowed the BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC to sweep all of our performance tests, running faster than any other GeForce 6600 GT card we’ve tested.

BFG then adds a copper heatsink/fan unit for better cooling (which is important when your overclocked graphics card ships with a lifetime warranty), and dual DVI connectivity. The card doesn’t ship with a software bundle, but that’s because BFG has tailored the card for purists who just want the best hardware available, at the expense of extras such as game bundles. And of course, don’t forget BFG’s lifetime warranty on the GeForce 6600 GT OC. All this adds up to a product that not only finishes first in our roundup, but also takes home our Editor’s Choice Award as well.

The BFG card doesn’t win Editor’s Choice because it’s the fastest. It earns it because it delivers the best combination of features a hardcore gamer or hardware enthusiast would want in a GeForce 6600 GT AGP card: copper cooling that gets the job done and performs well, with dual DVI connectivity for those of you with two high-end flat panel displays. The overclocked clock speeds are merely icing on the cake as far as we’re concerned, after all most of our audience probably knows how to overclock their graphics card by now, and all of the cards in this roundup share the same core hardware components, right down to the same 2.0ns Samsung GDDR3 memory.

Tied for second (and rounding out the top three) are the MSI NX6600 GT and XFX GeForce 6600 GT. So why are both cards tied? Because each card caters to a different crowd.

On one hand the MSI NX6600GT ships with a large copper cooler that cools both the NV43 graphics core and its accompanying memory; it’s the only card to cool both components in this roundup. MSI also uses a quiet fan that’s barely audible, making it perfect for those of you who would like to build a near silent PC. MSI also includes the best software bundle around, with three modern games and a ton of additional software programs and utilities. Finally, MSI rounds out their NX6600GT card with the addition of video input capability (VIVO), it’s the only card in this roundup to support this feature.

On the other hand XFX’s GeForce 6600 GT provides more flexible display options thanks to its dual DVI connections. Previously dual DVI was a feature that was only found on $500 graphics cards; XFX has made a commitment to bring this feature to all of performance-oriented graphics cards, apparently including those in the mainstream segment such as the GeForce 6600 GT AGP. And of course, don’t forget that the card ships with its memory running at 500MHz; 50MHz higher than stock GeForce 6600 GT AGP cards.

Because of this, those that like the idea of dual DVI will likely opt for the XFX card, while enthusiasts that are hardcore about cooling will likely want the MSI card.

The ASUS, eVGA, and Leadtek cards are also fine GeForce 6600 GT AGP boards that will leave a wide smile on the face of any prospective owner, each of these three share their own unique set of traits. eVGA backs their cards up with solid support and competitive pricing, while the ASUS and Leadtek cards boast quiet cooling.

As far as our overclocking results are concerned, don’t make any purchasing decisions based on our results. We’re simply working with too small a sample of cards from each manufacturer, and besides, cooling is only half of the overclocking game, equally important is getting lucky and landing a card that overclocks well. We’ve seen plenty of cards with excellent cooling barely overclock beyond stock speeds, while cards based on the same chip with very basic reference coolers overclock like there’s no tomorrow. Typically chips from ATI and NVIDIA scale to higher clocks over time, as they get better at manufacturing a given graphics core with more experience (this is where refresh products like the RADEON 9800 XT/X850 XT, and GeForce FX 5950 come in) but there are exceptions: ultimately the GeForce4 Ti 4600 never really scaled well beyond 330MHz.

Right now AGP-based GeForce 6600 GT cards are selling for a little more than their $200 list price, but once more board partners bring their cards to market and supply catches up to demand, prices will quickly fall to the sub-$200 price point PCI Express-based GeForce 6600 GT cards are currently going for. When that happens, we expect sales will really pick up. NVIDIA has delivered a killer product with the GeForce 6600 GT, who would have thought a $200 mainstream card would be outperforming high-end $500 graphics cards like the RADEON 9800 XT a year ago? Good job NVIDIA!