Date:
Sunday , March 06, 2005
Author:
Brent Justice
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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MSI and XFX 6600 GT AGP and PCI-E

We report on our gaming experience with MSI’s 6600 GT PCI-Express and XFX’s 6600 GT AGP and PCI-Express video cards. New games used include Chronicles of Riddick and Everquest II.

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MSI NX6600GT-TD128E:

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Micro-Star International (MSI) used to be an exclusive NVIDIA add-in-board partner. This changed a year ago when they adopted the ATI Radeon line of video cards into their fold. Now their current lineup consists of many NVIDIA and ATI-based video cards on AGP and PCI-Express platforms.

We have MSI’s PCI-Express NX6600GT-TD128E for review today. This video card is based on the PCI-Express GeForce 6600 GT GPU, and it has 128MB of GDDR3. One thing MSI has always done well is provide great bundles with their video cards. If you scroll down on the product page linked above, you will see the enormous amount of software you get with this video card.

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The MSI NX6600GT-TD128E uses a red printed circuit board. This video card has the SLI connector on top so it is fully ready for SLI action. No external power connector is needed; the PCI-Express slot is able to provide enough power on its own for this video card.

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At first glance, one would think the heatsink unit is made of copper. This is not the case as the heatsink is all aluminum and is simply painted to give it a copper effect. The heatsink does come in direct contact with the RAM providing cooling for the modules.

There is a VGA and DVI port, as well as a multimedia out port for Composite and S-Video. For the video out functionality, MSI includes a multimedia breakout box that lets you connect S-Video, Composite, or YPbPr. There is also an S-Video extension cable, and a DVI to VGA adapter.

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The bundle is most impressive in this package. MSI includes no less than 15 CDs with the NX6600GT-TD128E. This package includes full versions of the games URU, XIII, and Prince of Persia the Sands of Time. There is also a CD with 14 game demos on it. Then you have the MSI bundled software such as Media Deluxe Center II, Virtual Drive 7 Professional, Restore It 3 Professional, MSI 5.1 Channel DVD Player, MSI Super Pack, MSI 3D Desktop, and even more. There is no denying the incredible value of software included here.