BFG GeForce 6600GT OC AGP - PAGE 2Terren Tong - Thursday, December 30th, 2004
The Card
BFG has opted to stick with a reference 6600GT board layout with the 6600GT OC but replaces the heatsink on both the GPU and HSI chip to copper coolers instead. The GPU fan lights up a bright blue when powered up, matching up with the blue of the PCB.
Those of you who have case windows may like this extra touch that BFG has put in. As with the reference solution, the memory is not covered by heatsinks. We can see that both the reference and BFG solutions take advantage of 2ns Samsung GDDR3 memory modules but the memory on the reference NVIDIA solution is clocked at 900 Mhz.
A mole x connector is required for the AGP version of the 6600GT as the AGP port just does not have enough juice to power even the midrange-next generation cards.
For the multimonitor LCD junkies out there, BFG has gone with the Dual DVI implementation on the 6600GT OC. There is the standard video out port - BFG has included a break out connector that allows for RCA, S-Video and Component out so pretty much every single base is covered as far as TV-Out is concerned.
The Bundle
Something that we should have mentioned before encouraging readers to tear open the box is the presence of a small window at the back of the BFG retail box. This should show the UPC code so that you can verify that you are indeed buying a 6600GT OC and not some jackasses' two year old card he returned inside a BFG box. We've heard horror stories of products that appeared to be shrink wrapped but then the end user finds something unexpected inside. Take that extra 10 seconds to make sure that the proper card is inside the box.
As mentioned, BFG has included a nifty video dongle that covers all types of modern TV connectors from RCA to Component. Along with the dongle are a pair of DVI->VGA converters, a Y-splitter for a molex plug, a quick install guide, a couple stickers, a demo CD, an utilities CD that includes NVDVD software and drivers. As with the BFG 6800 GT OC we took a look at earlier this year, BFG has gone with a pretty barebones approach as far as the software bundle is concerned - we thought the Call of Duty pack in last December was great but we'd rather have the card be a few bucks cheaper rather than throwing in a game that someone may already have or does not like. Oh well.
The quick install guide is pretty succinct and covers physical, driver and multimonitor installation and setup. This should be sufficient for most people and if not, there is always the toll-free 24/7 support line. I made a point of testing this out last Christmas and lo and behold, at 2AM PST, someone picked up on the first ring. For those that are cursed with computer gremlins this is a great resource to have.