"X1600PRO, X800GT/GTO/GTO2 versus GeForce 6600GT" confrontation
GigaByte GeForce 6600GT SILENT-PIPE 128 MB
This video card is shipped in a nice-looking and relevantly colored box.
The package bundle includes: a 15-pin D-Sub/DVI adapter, a VIVO (9-pin S-Video/HDTV(color difference)/Composite) cable, a user's manual, 4 CDs with drivers, software and games.
To improve operation of the SILENT-PIPE cooling system, the card is additionally equipped with an enforcement frame.
The board is made of blue textolyte, but almost all the components are hidden under the passive cooling system. The SILENT-PIPE itself is made up of a heat pipe and three radiators, two of which are positioned on the reverse side of the board, closer to the GPU fan.
The radiator on the from side of the board is to a more extent aimed at pressing the heat pipe to the GPU.
This passive cooling system is fastened with merely two spring-loaded screws.
Much has already been said about the efficiency of such cooling, but we should make some addition. The board passed all the tests without enabling the additional fan and even proved to get overclocked somehow. Already upon dismantling the test bench, we found some overheating of the card (we powered it off, but were unable to remove the card from the PCI-Express connector since it was too hot). So we had to make a check measurement of the temperature with ATITool.
As you see, the temperature of the chip immediately got to 90°Ñ, so we had to turn the PSU with the vent holes towards the video cards, which helped to reduce the temperature of the video card a bit. That's where we recalled the bundled fan..
The temperature dropped to acceptable 78°Ñ, and the cooling system stopped being noiseless. But let's come back to the exterior of the card without the SILENT-PIPE.
The memory chips are positioned over only one side of the PCB. The video card does not require additional power supply. To output image, DVI and D-Sub connectors are used. There is also a VIVO connector to input video and plug in the PC to a TV-set.
The NV43 GPU is of revision A4 and was manufactured on the 17th week of the last year. The chip runs at 500 MHz.
The video memory is assembled with four GDDR3 Samsung (1.6 ns) chips of total capacity 128 MB. The memory runs at 1120 MHz.
The Philips SAA7114H chip is in charge of VIVO functionality.
Despite the original extreme performance of the cooling system, we were not afraid of trying the card for overclocking. Considering all the circumstances, the experiment can be called successful. The card ran all the tests without failures and artifacts at GPU speed 565 MHz and the memory frequency 1140 MHz.
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