Sparkle
Sparkle is using the reference NVIDIA HSF, which in this case, wins a great deal of points. The NVIDIA reference cooling solution has rubber nubs around all four corners of the HSF solution. This adds stability to the part that many other cards in this review lack. Unfortunately, the spring tension isn't wonderfully high, so cooling is a little lower than what might be desired. The spacers may add stability, but they also make it so that in order to get really good contact for cooling, the part would need to be pressed down harder than it currently is.
There were a couple of vendors who sent us "press samples" that were clocked at non-shipping clock speeds. Sparkle is included in this group, but we've asked them to only send us products that we can buy on the shelves. The part that we have in our labs boots up at 507/550, but we clocked it higher than that, easily.
You have to wonder who made the decision that seven MHz and a tiny bit of memory bandwidth was really worth sending us a press sample when we asked them not to do so. Because of that, we also can't be sure that the components that went into the part weren't binned beforehand - the 2ns DDR3 memory easily hit 610MHz.
Getting 2ns memory to clock that high is obviously not impossible. It can happen by chance (we've seen it before on earlier parts that used it), but we'd rather have no doubts.
At the same time, we asked for shipping parts and this is what we received. We'll report all the information that we have along with the numbers that we get and let the readers make the call.
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geogecko - Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - link
Well, two e-mails later to XFX, without an answer to my questions, and now I see this PNY PCI-E card with dual dvi and hdtv out pod...guess who's going to get my money?Beatnik - Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - link
Two links of interest:
http://www.xfxforce.com/pinetechnotes/Fan%20Update...
http://www.pny.com/products/verto/performance/6600...
Nice article folks!
Beatnik - Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - link
Seems pretty clear that a lot of people are waiting on their next upgrade, hence the continued heavy AGP interest. w.r.t. the XFX, it looks like they have a online store, and now have a pretty cool looking heatsink on the AGP card:
http://www.xfxforce.com/pinetechnotes/Fan%20Update...
The PNY 6600GT AGP product looks interesting also: http://www.pny.com/products/verto/performance/6600...
Might be the only DVI+DVI+component video out.
(Outstanding article guys!)
Rekonn - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
I too would really like to see a roundup like this one done for 6600GT AGP cards.zoros - Sunday, December 26, 2004 - link
Anyone know how well PNY 6600GT is doing in there tests.. I have tried to find information everywhere, but with no sucess.. :-(geogecko - Monday, December 20, 2004 - link
I agree. PC's have started to move into the home theater more than ever now, and people (me included) are reading your articles to obtain knowledge when building home theater PC's. This information is not there, and thus still leaves me in the dark as to which video card to purchase for my HTPC.No word from XFX on their HDTV Output compatibility, so I must assume they don't support it, which stinks, considering they have the only card with dual DVI connectors, and a decent HSF design.
I realize this was a quick review, but video cards are now being required to have HD compatibility since so many people are interested in HTPC's these days. No one wants a DVR that forces advertising on them when they fast forward past commercials...so why not build a DVR that does more than TiVo intead...
How about an update with HDTV Output compatibility, along with who includes the cables?
nvdm24 - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
How much longer will us readers allow these ridiculous reviews to go on? Many of the readers of these tech sites want to know the FULL capabilities of these cards, not just how they run doom 3 and other 3d games. Sadly, reviewers at anandtech and every other tech site ignore the VIDEO capabilities of VIDEO cards. Even this review of the new 6600 agp ignores the video aspect of the 6600, despite the problems of the 6800, that weren't discovered by any reviewer, since none of them tested it for video. Not testing the video aspect does a HUGE disservice to readers. It's quite simple, just test a dvd movie and make sure the video aspect works and let readers know. If you feel particularly energetic, you could also test how fast it renders home movies, etc. You may think this is the job of a VIDEO site or PC site, but you are a PC site, a tech site. You would be surprised at the people who read your reviews. Others are going to start doing the job better, thus pull away readers if you don't get it together.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
Hi Derek,any word from the manufactures that had problems, are they sending you new cards?
I was reading some user reviews for the MSI 6600GT _AGP_ at gameve.com and it also has heating problems, which is disapointing. Do you plan a similar article on the 6600GT AGP cards?
1q3er5 - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
ouch u got me good there :( im never posting again :o lolDerekWilson - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
#54 We scored cards more on construction, cooling, and noise, rather than on overclockability. thus the Albatron didn't get an award.Also, the leadtek card you liked to is the AGP version. We tested PCI Express parts only. The heatsink you mention is not cooling RAM, but the HSI (PCIe to AGP bridge).