Albatron 6600 512 DDR2 Video Card Review

The card

The Albatron Trinity 6600 512mb is based on the Nvidia 6600 GPU. The GeForce 6600 is manufactured on a 0.11 micron process and offers 8 pixel pipelines and 1 vertex pipeline. The memory bus interface is 128-bit and as the name suggests, offers 512MB of memory. That?s right, Albatron has decided to take the road less traveled and offer something that no one else has, backing their commitment to being creative. Only recently has 512MB of memory started to make regular appearances on the highest end video cards. While those cards use GDDR III Albatron uses much less expensive DDR II on this card. The GPU clock is run at 325MHz and the memory runs at 500MHz.

The 6600 is designed for low power consumption so there are no external power connectors to be found here. Hooking up a monitor gives you two choices, VGA or a single link DVI. The maximum resolution that the video card supports is 2048×1536@85Hz. The 6600 is a true DirectX 9 video card and offers Shader Model 3.0 support which includes HDR. It?s also capable of using Pure Video, giving you high-quality DVD playback and stutter-free, high-definition viewing for a home theater experience on your PC.

Taking the heat sink off the Albatron 6600 512 was quick and easy. Unlike past reviews where companies don’t put enough thermal compound on the video card Albatron put enough thermal paste on for a dozen cards! It’s better to have too much than not enough so no complaints here. When we cleaned off some of the thermal compound we got to see the core as shown below.

It looks like we have a GeForce 6600 A4 revision core, which is the newest revision that is out right now. This one was produced on the 37th week of 2005, so they have been out for some time now.

Here is a quick run down of what features are in the 6600:

• CineFX 3.0 Shading Architecture
• 64-Bit Texture Filtering and Blending
• Intellisample 3.0 Technology
• UltraShadow II Technology
• PureVideo Technology
• Advanced Display Functionality
• NVIDIA Digital Vibrance Control? (DVC) 3.0
• Shader Model 3.0

As you can see, the Albatron 6600 512 is packed with features considering the reasonable cost. Since it shipped with a component adapter I?d say that Albatron expects a few of these cards to end up in HTPC?s. When it comes to HTPC?s two things stick out the most, noise and heat.

Albatron has taken great care in keeping this card quiet, the fan is barely audible on an open test system. The hard drive seeking was easily louder than the video card fan at any time. Not only is it quiet the heatsink does a great job of keeping things cool as well.

Let’s take a look at just how well this card performs when pressed into 3D gaming.