Asus Extreme N6600GT x 2 - Revisiting SLI

Name: Asus Extreme N6600GT x 2 - Revisiting SLI
Brand: Asus

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, April 19, 2005, 03:00 PM EDT

Introduction, Specifications, and Bundle

A few months ago, we assessed the performance of a pair of GeForce 6800 GTs and a pair of GeForce 6800 Ultras running in SLI-mode, and were impressed by the platform's performance. We did have some concerns over driver support and the TCO of the platform, however. NVIDIA's current SLI (Scalable Link Interface) technology requires a specific profile be integrated into the drivers that dictates whether alternate frame rendering (AFR) or split-frame rendering (SFR) can be used for a particular application, and without that profile SLI won't function correctly. And a pair of GeForce 6800-class cards plus an nForce 4 SLI motherboard commands a significant monetary investment, so the technology isn't for everyone.

Today though, we're approaching SLI from a different angle. We've acquired a pair of SLI-capable Asus Extreme N6600GT, GeForce 6600GT based, graphics cards, nForce 4 SLI motherboards have gotten much more affordable than they were at launch, and we're working with the third official set of SLI-enabled Forceware drivers to be released. NVIDIA's SLI technology has matured nicely since we first wrote about it in December, and the cost of a pair of GeForce 6600GTs and an SLI capable motherboard is much easier to justify than its high-end dual-6800 based cousin. Read on to see what we think of a mid-range SLI configuration like this one, by way of a pair of Asus Extreme N6600 GTs...

Specifications & Features of The Asus Extreme N6600GT

NVIDIA's Value Priced PCI-Express GPU

CINEFX 3.0 SHADING ARCHITECTURE

Vertex Shaders
Support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Vertex Shader 3.0
Displacement mapping
Geometry Instancing
Infinite length vertex programs*
Pixel Shaders
Support for DirectX 9.0 Pixel Shader 3.0
Full pixel branching support
Support for Multiple Render Targets (MRTs)
Infinite length pixel programs*
Next-Generation Texture Engine
Up to 16 textures per rendering pass
Support for 16-bit floating point format and 32-bit floating point format
Support for non-power of two textures
Support for sRGB texture format for gamma textures
DirectX and S3TC texture compression
Full 128-bit studio-quality floating point precision through the entire rendering pipeline with native hardware support for 32bpp, 64bpp, and 128bpp rendering modes

64-BIT TEXTURE FILTERING AND BLENDING

Full floating point support throughout entire pipeline
Floating point filtering improves the quality of images in motion
Floating point texturing drives new levels of clarity and image detail
Floating point frame buffer blending gives detail to special effects like motion blur and explosions

INTELLISAMPLE 3.0 TECHNOLOGY

Advanced 16x anisotropic filtering
Blistering-fast anti-aliasing and compression performance
New rotated-grid anti-aliasing removes jagged edges for incredible edge quality
Support for advanced lossless compression algorithms for color, texture, and z-data at even higher resolutions and frame rates
Fast z-clear
High-resolution compression technology (HCT) increases performance at higher resolutions through advances in compression technology

ULTRASHADOW II TECHNOLOGY

Designed to enhance the performance of shadow-intensive games, like id Softwares Doom III

ADVANCED ENGINEERING

Designed for PCI Express x16
Supports for AGP 8X including Fast Writes and sideband addressing
Designed for high-speed GDDR3 memory
128-bit advanced memory interface
0.11 micron process technology
Advanced thermal management and thermal monitoring

ADVANCED VIDEO AND DISPLAY FUNCTIONALITY

Dedicated on-chip video processor
MPEG video encode and decode
WMV9 decode acceleration
Advanced adaptive de-interlacing
High-quality video scaling and filtering
DVD and HDTV-ready MPEG-2 decoding up to 1920x1080i resolutions
Dual integrated 400 MHz RAMDACs for display resolutions up to and including 2048x1536 at 85Hz.
Dual DVO ports for interfacing to external TMDS transmitters and external TV encoders
Microsoft Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) supports multiple video windows with full video quality and features in each window
Full NVIDIA nView multi-display technology capability

NVIDIA DIGITAL VIBRANCE CONTROL (DVC) 3.0

DVC color controls
DVC image sharpening controls

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Windows XP
Windows ME
Windows 2000
Windows 9X
Macintosh OS, including OS X
Linux

API SUPPORT

Complete DirectX support, including the latest version of Microsoft DirectX 9.0
Full OpenGL, including OpenGL 1.5

* The operating system or APIs can impose limits, but the hardware does not limit shader program length.

Asus included a well balanced assortment of accessories and software with the Extreme N6600GT, especially considering this is a mid-range video card targeted at budget-conscious gamers. Bundled with the card itself, we found a simple user's manual that outlines the card's main features and installation, an S-Video cable, and a DVI-to-DB15 adapter. Along with these accessories, Asus included a plastic CD case as well, that held copies of Novalogic's Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, AsusDVD DVD playback software, Cyberlink PowerDirector 3DE, and Medi@Show SE v2.14. There was also another pair of CDs included in the retail package, that contained all of the necessary drivers to install the Extreme N6600GT, and a copy of Asus' proprietary "Game Face" application, a real-time audio/video communications program that works in conjunction with a webcam and microphone.