Good 3D Performance at a Middling Price: GeForce 6600 Shootout

MSI

MSI's graphics cards designed for particularly high performance bear the moniker "Diamond" - they do better at 3D than conventional cards in the same product group. In this test the AGP and PCI Express versions of the NX6600 VTD128 in the "Diamond" line are represented.

MSI NX6600 VTD128 Diamond (AGP)

With the NX6600 VTD 128 Diamond, MSI has a very unusual card in its lineup. It is based on the standard version of NVIDIA's GeForce 6600 graphics processor. However, as the name "Diamond" implies, the card has higher clock rates than those of the NVIDIA references specifications - 400 MHz core and 800 MHz memory rather than 300/550 MHz.

The red board, like the cooler, denotes the GT version of the NX6600. Accordingly, the card also has an external power supply. The fan is delightfully silent in operation, but cannot be adjusted. The video inputs and outputs complete the NX6600 VTD 128 Diamond's fine equipment package.