MSI NX6600GT-VTD128SP AGP
MSI NX6600GT-VTD128SP AGP - Closer Inspection
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At the heart of the NX6600GT-VTD128SP is NVIDIA's NV43 core. The NX6600GT is an 8-Pixel Pipeline solution that is natively PCI Express. To adapt the card to AGP, an HSI (High Speed Interconnect) Bridge Chip is used, which you can see in the pictures below covered with a small copper heatsink. The core on this card is clocked at 500MHz and it comes with 128MB of 1.6ns Samsung GDDR3 memory clocked at 1000MHz.
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The NX6600GT does require a single molex power connector to help drive the card while the PCI Express version doesn't need supplemental power. A slim heat sink and fan assembly helps keep the GPU and Memory cool, exhausting air to the rear of the card and across the HSI chip. The fan itself was very quiet overall and should add little to your overall case noise. The front of the card sports the common VGA, DVI and VIVO port configuration we're used to seeing on cards of this type.
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To give an idea of image quality capabilities, we lined up a scene from The Chronicles of Riddick - EFBB, taking snapshots with various filtering methods enabled. As a frame of reference, we included the same series taken with duplicate settings set with a GeForce 6800.
| 6600GT - No AA / No Aniso | NX6600GT - 4X AA / 8X Aniso | NX6600GT - 8X AA / 16X Aniso |
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| 6800 - No AA / No Aniso | 6800 - 4X AA / 8X Aniso | 6800 - 8X AA / 16X Aniso |
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When comparing any quality video card today, it's getting harder and harder to see major variations in video quality. In the past, it used to be pretty clear which card rendered better images, but even today's mid-range and low-end cards can have many of the same capabilities as the high-end models, making image quality a much more level playing field. In this case, the variations are there, but they are so slight, it's a tough call.
