Package and Accessories

The XFX card came to our lab in its retail package of a most peculiar design. Most manufacturers do not dare to move aside of traditional forms and parcel their products into square boxes of varying size, from small and medium (like PowerColor’s) to huge, suitcase-like boxes with special handles (like ASUS’ and MSI’s). Besides size, the box may vary in design details like flap covers and transparent windows which allow the user to see the card without even opening the box. XFX, on its part, did not experiment with the size of the package, but invented a completely different way of attracting the customer:

It is the first time we see such an original, X-shaped box with a graphics card! The solution may be dubious as concerns the convenience of storage and transportation, but it is sure to catch the idle shopper’s eyes. A strange, bear-like creature is pictured on the face side of the cardboard cover. It must be one of the champions of the gaming world mentioned at the top. Below, you can see an XFX logo in a triangle which looks like three atomic orbits. The interface (PCI Express x16) and memory type and amount (256MB GDDR2) are indicated there, too (we tore off the sticker and saw the original text “128MB DDR” because this box is also used for ordinary GeForce 6600 cards manufactured by XFX).

There are two transparent windows in the rear side of the box. The bigger window gives you a view of the card’s central part with the cooler and memory chips. The smaller one shows you the configuration of the output connectors. We think this is reasonable enough. There’s an X-shaped box made of thick cardboard inside the external cover – you have to undo eight round stickers to pull it out. Or you can take off two such stickers and open the box from one side only. Then you take out a green cardboard container with an XFX GeForce 6600 GDDR2 graphics card and its accessories.

This is not to say that the package ends here. Far from that. You should next extract a flat box with the company’s logo on top – it contains accessories like CDs, adapters, manuals, etc. Under it you will see an X-shaped cardboard seal covered with ominous-looking symbols like a skull with bones, radioactivity warning, chemical and bio-hazard signs. There’s also a caption in large letters “Warning! Awesome graphics!” and some more in smaller print (like “Dangerously Reactive Material Causing You to Spontaneously Scream ‘XFX Rules!’”). People at XFX don’t seem to lack the sense of humor or self-esteem. :)

You should remove that cross piece to take out the transparent container with the card (not an easy thing as the container catches on the box’s sides). The card is firmly fixed on its bed and you again have to use some force to extract it.

We’ll examine the card in detail a bit later. Right now let’s check the box with accessories. It contains the following:

• User’s Guide (in English)
• Installation Guide (in multiple languages)
• Ads of other gaming products from XFX
• Two DVI-I → D-Sub adapters
• S-Video cable
• CD with drivers
• DVD with Far Cry

It is strange to have two DVI-I → D-Sub adapters included since the card features only one DVI connector, even though it is marked as “PV-T43P-UDS7” which corresponds to the XFX GeForce 6600 256MB GDDR2 Dual DVI XXX Edition graphics card (check out this link). There’s no S-Video → RCA adapter and cable among the accessories (probably because the product is meant for the USA market in the first place). An YPbPr splitter is missing, too, although the GeForce 6600 GDDR2 fully supports HDTV devices capable of working in 720p and 1080i modes.

The multilingual Installation Guide is a bit out of date as it does not contain any mention of PCI Express, although most graphics cards are being currently produced for that very slot. The user’s manual is more detailed. It mentions PCI Express and thoroughly describes nearly all the settings of NVIDIA’s ForceWare driver.

The accessories to the XFX GeForce 6600 GDDR2 seem sufficient, considering the targeting of this product at economical gamers. It’s nice to have a copy of the popular game Far Cry and a well-written user’s manual here.