FEAR is
Sierra's latest first person shooter which relies heavily on DirectX 9 features.
With its "Soft Shadows" feature enabled, even the fastest videocards run at a
crawl, FEAR is definitely the new benchmark for future FPS games to
follow.
FEAR is a pretty videocard intensive game and is too
much for the Gigabyte GV-NX66T256DE when AA/AF is enabled.
Silent Graphics
Card
Putting up with computer noise has become a fact of
life, or has it? If you are resourceful enough, building a silent PC is not a
difficult task, you just have to pick the parts well. Gigabyte has equipped
its GV-NX66T256DE videocard with a passive heatpipe heatsink right from the
start, making it an easy option for consumers to take. There are third party
solutions from companies like Zalman which can be retrofitted onto existing
videocards, but here we have a solution which has been designed from the ground
up for silent operation.
The GV-NX66T256DE uses a custom PCB layout and a dual slot cooling
solution (dubbed Silent-Pipe II) that requires at least two PCI slots.
The Silent-Pipe II splits the 6600GT heat load between two aluminum finned
radiators and is designed to work with the system airflow to keep the videocard
running within operating temperatures.
The Gigabyte GV-NX66T256DE is also the perfect videocard
for HTPC's since it is completely silent and supports all forms of video output
(component and S-Video). The software package is a bit on the thin side with
only PowerDVD 6... a little disappointing.
With a lower memory clock speed the Gigabyte
GV-NX66T256DE performs slightly slower than a regular GeForce 6600GT in most
instances. Games or applications that require a large amount of video memory
might get a benefit from the GV-NX66T256DE since its equipped with 256MB of DDR2
memory. In terms of overclocking, the Silent-Pipe II cooler did an excellent job
at keeping things cool and the test sample hit a satisfactory 617 MHz. The
memory did not do quite as well, but 875 MHz is still pretty decent for 2.5ns
Infineon BGA DDR2 DRAM.
If you are looking for a silent videocard to go with
your quiet PC, the Gigabyte GV-NX66T256DE might the card for you. The GeForce
6600GT core only produces a moderate amount of heat so it can be passively
cooled without any problems and it also guarantees decent 3D performance. Team
that up with TV output capabilities and you've got a videocard with a lot to
offer.
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5. Albatron GeForce 7800GTX Videocard Review
FEAR
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