XFX GeForce 6200TC

XFX's GeForce 6200TC 128MB Up Close Closer Inspection

At the heart of the XFX card is a GeForce 6200TC GPU that is designed around the PCI-Express interface. Although there are AGP variants of the GeForce 6200 GPU, those featuring TurboCache are strictly PCI-Express only for reasons we'll illustrate on the following page. Taking a look at the front and back of the card, we find that XFX has managed to keep the board layout extremely clean and efficient. Here, we find ample room for the board's passive heatsink and more than enough room for the two discrete memory modules.

Removing the passive heatsink, we find the surprisingly small die of the GeForce 6200. Based on a .11u process, the entire die is able to remain roughly 13mm square. This small GPU runs at a default clock speed of 350MHz and as seen above, is able to be efficiently cooled by a passive heatsink. The heatsink itself is a simple finned block of aluminum with rubber-like feet to ensure flat and proper placement on the card. Retention duties are handled by two simple plastic push-pins which lock the heatsink in place. One item of notice is the large amount of thermal paste applied at the factory. Those looking to overclock this card and find its limits would do well to clean the core and reapply a thinner film of high quality thermal paste such as Arctic Silver.

On each side of the board, we find a 2.86ns Samsung GDDR memory module which is rated for an operating frequency of 700MHz. Surprisingly enough, these 128Mbit modules managed to clock up to 783MHz without any cooling whatsoever. Taking a quick look at the specifications Samsung lists for this family of memory module, we find that there are some versions clocked as high as 900MHz so the success of the overclock will vary on the quality of the bin for these modules.

Looking at the card as a whole, we see that there are three main video outputs. The combination of DVI and standard VGA outputs allows for dual-monitors to be used. In addition, the presence of an S-Video output gives users the options of connecting to a TV or additional display. Moving our attention to the opposite end of the card, we find that the board lacks any power header. Here, the relatively low power requirements of the GeForce 6200 GPU are more than within the capabilities of the PCI-Express bus so no external connector is required.