The Verdict
Of course the GeForce 6600 series offers astoundingly good value for your money. Compared to the "normal" 6600 graphics cards the GT versions do fetch you a little bit more of a faster experience. It's like having a little bit of reserve stashed away for the more heavy tasks and/or AA and AF settings and options. When we overlook the fact that this card is a fantastic 2D/3D capable graphics card and being a truly awesome media (movie) player these cards have to boil down towards performance versus the best feature set during gaming. That game performance if of course good for the money you pay. Doom 3, at a screen resolution of 1024x768 you'll be able to play this title at tight high quality settings with an average of 70-75+ Frames per second and at 1600x1200 it still plays at ~45 FPS, that's just incredible.
So specifically on this Galaxy model I can say, the Zalman copper cooler looks and works fantastic, its noise level is low in IDLE though the temperature already is 45 Degrees C. At high-performance the card remains under 60 Degrees C, which is good. The card although based on reference design has it's own touch and feel. The blue PCB, the copper cooling, something I applaud very much.
The new Dual BIOS functionality. In retrospect I must say I really do like the idea of the Dual BIOS functionality of this graphics card.
We tested many GeForce 6600 GT cards in the past already and I do have one negative thing to say about it. Honestly it works pretty well, but if you are not a tweaker that is playing around with BIOS flashes you probably don't want to pay extra for this option, just go for the regular version. The normal user will absolutely not understand the DOS BIOS flashing procedure as it's quite spartan.
The real freaks among us that do like to play around with altering core/memory/voltage frequencies at BIOS level will absolutely love this product. Because if you fail, you can always go back to the default BIOS. So it's a fantastic feature for that kind of user. I do however feel that the market for this product is extremely small making this product not the most popular in the Galaxy's 6600 range of products. But hey, it's an option and it's good to have options as it gives you choices.
Other then that the card is highly tweakable and reasonably overclockable, it's recommended for the real geeks among us.
If you can't afford a high-end product or simply do not have the ambition to own one, then this card is a fabulous product to buy. Although the flash options only will appeal to a very small amount of users let's not forget that it is additional value, as you still have a fully equipped GeForce 6600 GT with SLI capability and a heck of a lot of fun for the money.
Yeah, you'll like the performance and the 3D Quality for a relatively small amount of money for sure and the smart buzzer and dual BIOS options, well that's additional value for sure.
GeForce 6600 GT Dual BIOS Smart Flash
Company Galaxy
Info: galaxytech.com
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