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There is a certain nostalgia that comes with wonderful memories. Playing baseball with the neighborhood kids; going fishing with the family; that first girlfriend way back in first grade. To stay truer to the target audience, there was playing X-wing, a mind blowing experience for a devout star wars fan of 10. There were the old Sierra graphic adventures like King’s Quest and Hero’s Quest. To use something more recent, there was the masterfully cinematic experience of Halo. While it could be true that those memories may be rosier colored than the reality of playing them again, that route is kind of required for this review because of severely outdated hardware.
For any scientific study, a foundation in stark reality is a must if the truth is to be discovered. The stark reality is that the card reviewed here, the Geforce 6600GT was intended as a midrange card when it was launched in August 2004. Taking into account Moore’s law that computing power doubles roughly every 18 months, and inferring from that that top end games follow that rate in hardware requirements, it can then only surmised that by now it is virtually hopeless that said card would be able to run today’s most demanding games at even decent frame rates. So what is the truth of the matter? Read on dear friends…

A hopelessly midrange computer circa 2004 was the test rig:

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+ ~ 1.8 Ghz
• GIGABYTE GV-NX66T128 6600GT 128 MB vram
• 1 GB pc3200 dual channel ram
• Windows XP Pro
• Western Digital 160GB HDD

All games tested with FRAPS version 2.8.2 during a realistic and technically demanding scene.

First, the hypothesis. Can a three year old midrange card on a similarly aged computer adequately run games released in 2007? The answer is a resounding…sorta. For Supreme Commander the answer was a definite no. With an average fps of 4.2 with all settings to low, even the simple act of clicking on a desired unit became an adventure as units moved significant distances between frames and one was never sure if the click would even register. In the single player campaign this was somewhat manageable once the scripted sequence of events was learned and the battlefield prepared accordingly. In multiplayer however, with no script to memories, reacting to the attacks of opponents and initiating one’s own attacks was a sure exercise in frustration and hair pulling.
Surprisingly however, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars WAS a playable experience, even online. Being an RTS rather than an FPS, a frame rate of 21.7 was enough to react to the actions of others. With settings set to medium the game still looked decent enough to be thought of as a modern game while scrolling the screen and clicking on units was responsive enough to accomplish desired actions, although in heavy firefights the game did tend to bog down and scrolling the screen became a slideshow.
It must be noted however that Tiberium Wars was built on a modified version of an older game engine, so it’s more likely the performance of Supreme Commander is representative of modern games rather than CnC3.

STILL A TREASURE TROVE OF FUN TO BE HAD

That being the case with modern games, there is still a world of great gaming out there just beyond the consciousness of gamers. One need merely look to those euphoric feelings of nostalgia that games from the past can bring.

…Or can they? First up was Unreal Tournament 2004, that bastion of unadulterated action gaming since March 2004. With all settings to high the game was able to achieve an average fps of 36.5, which seems like a decent enough number. Further analysis would indicate otherwise however.
Being an FPS, the twitch responses demanded by a successful player can only be met by a smooth and predictable frame rate. With such a large range, from 19 to 77 fps, however, the experience was anything but predictable. Tracking a target was easy enough, but aiming and firing became an iffy proposition because the inconsistent frame rate would cause minor unexpected delays in movement that threw off the crosshair, especially from a distant and fast moving target. Lowering settings to medium resulted in an increased average to 43.9 fps with a range of 25 to 82; still the same problem as high settings. Too great a range and not a smooth enough average. Below those settings the game looked to horrid to play, so with the 6600GT one really has to settle with having tricky aim at best in a competitive FPS.

Thief: Deadly Shadows

Released in May 2004, Thief: Deadly Shadows was the third installment of the popular Thief series of games. It also happened to come with the card. Ironic then that on high settings the game manages a meager 20 FPS average with a range from a stuttering 9 to a decent 41. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that a game that came with a video card was meant to showcase the powers of that card, so hoping that it could run Thief: DS on high settings adequately was probably not too much to ask. But with the jerky frame rate (especially in outdoor areas) and Garrett’s methodical movements, the game actually became nausea inducing to the point of having to turn off the computer for an hour or so. Reducing settings to medium yielded a 29.4 FPS average with a range of 14 to 61, but still didn’t alleviate the nausea inducing jerkiness. Call this one an all around baaaad gaming experience.

Sid Meier’s Pirates!

A classic game of GTA on the high seas updated for 2004, Pirates truly harkens back to the creative days of game design. Set in the Caribbean, players took on the role of a 16th or 17th century buccaneer trying to make money robbing, pillaging, making off with governors’ daughters and even possibly become respectable. A game with much simpler mechanics and slower pace in contrast to the others compared here, Pirates is the least in need of high FPS. With all settings on high, it achieved an average of 13.5 with a range of 0 to 62. Interestingly, it wasn’t even noticeable whenever the engine hit 0 fps because the design of the game, while far from plodding, proceeds at a leisurely, considerably non-hectic pace. It’s truly a testimony to terrific game design that so much fun can be still be had at such an apparently low FPS.

Rome: Total War

Perhaps the most realistic games of the RTS genre, the Total War series is known for fully animating thousands upon thousands of units on screen simultaneously, and at surprisingly high quality. One of the best of the series, Rome was release in September 2004 to universally rave reviews. In this test, with all settings on high, it achieve a respectable (for an RTS) average of 18.1 with a relatively stable range of 6 to 29. Overall the experience of playing the game was similar to CnC3 in that while stuttering was noticeable, responsiveness to clicking units and scrolling the screen was good enough to achieve desired actions. After achieving good graphic quality and responsive controls, there was no need to go lower in the graphic spectrum.

Lock On: Modern Air Combat

Among the nostalgic age of pc gaming, everyone remembers the popularity of flight simulators. From F-19 to Strike Commander flight sims seemed an obvious usage of pc computing prowess in the late 80s and early 90s. A pity gaming trends have fallen away from this genre, but LOMAC, as Lock On is abbreviated, released in July 2005, is widely considered one of the best ever made. With the 6600GT it was able to achieve an average of 13.1 FPS with a range of 2 to 45. Even though aircraft move along at a plodding pace compared to the frantic nature of UT2004, the requirements of aiming are very similar. Not being able to use mouselook in LOMAC makes matters worse as aiming with pedals, rudders, and ailerons is an imprecise science at best. Also, flying close to the ground in an A-10 at 13 fps is a suicide mission as the screen isn’t updated fast enough to determine whether one has the airspeed or the turn radius to be able to pull out of the dive on that tank back there.

Ballistics Report:

Pros:
• Doesn’t explode

Cons:
• Woefully inadequate for modern gaming
• Not even great for Old School Gaming

VERDICT


Modern gaming has long, long passed the Geforce 6600GT, with the rare games that use older engines the only viable choices. With truly modern games like Supreme Commander though, FUH-GEDDABOUTIT, as the New Englanders say.
However, there is still a world of wonderful pc gaming to be had if one can get past the need for shiniest, newest graphics. That said, the 6600 GT is still not the choice even from Old School Gaming. Even with games released right around the same time as the card’s launch, performance is generally subpar. Only in games where high frame rates isn’t required is the experience enjoyable, but that’s a function of the design of the game. In terms of delivering satisfying graphics at a realistic rate, the card fails even those games. In short, any gamer that still has this card seriously needs an upgrade!