X-bit labs

X-bit labs CeBIT 2005 Coverage: Day 5 (page 2)

Category: Editorial

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/15/2005 | 04:06 PM ]

Leadtek Releases Dual GeForce 6600 GT Graphics Card

There is definitely “SLI-mania” all over CeBIT show this year: all mainboard makers, even those who produce relatively affordable products, display their mainboards that support capability to install two graphics cards instead of one and get additional performance in 3D applications.

Historically dual-chip graphics cards were not successful, but with the help of NVIDIA’s Scalable Link Interface graphics cards makers have probably decided to give the idea another chance. Following Gigabyte, who introduced its 3D1 graphics card with two GeForce 6600 GT graphics processors late last year, ASUSTeK Computer and Leadtek Research are rolling out their dual-GeForce 6600 GT graphics cards at CeBIT 2005.

Leadtek’s Duo PX6600 GT Extreme graphics card works in any PCI Express x16-supporting mainboard and operates at higher core and memory clock-speeds compared to the reference-speed GeForce 6600 GT graphics products (550MHz/560MHz for core/memory versus 500MHz/1000MHz default speeds).

Still, Leadtek’s dual graphics card has the same disadvantage similar to all SLI setups based on the GeForce 6600 GT graphics chips: each of the visual processing unit is only equipped with 128MB of memory; considering the SLI architecture, this results in total effective amount of memory of 128MB – not enough for today’s high-end games played in high resolutions. Still, dual-GPU graphics cards may end up as interesting solutions provided that the price is competitive, e.g., considerably lower compared to single-GPU graphics cards with similar performance.