Given NVIDIA's close development with id Software on Doom 3 we weren't all that surprised to see a member of the undead emblazoned across the front of the packaging, but we were surprised to find a treat inside. We think Gigabyte has taken a big step in the right direction by thinking outside the box of regular bundles of outdated games and have included a copy of the full retail version of Doom 3. Given hardware manufacturers are now working closely with games developers, it makes sense to pay a little more and get the games we want to play alongside our new card. Therein lies part of the beauty of this product, while able to hold its own in the performance stakes, the fact that it ships with the game and still manages to be the cheapest card in the round up, makes it a very compelling buy and well worth our consideration for an award.
Scoring well in each of the tests we threw at it, the NX66T128D placed fourth and fifth respectively in the synthetic portion of our testing, just shy of 2600 marks in the latest version of 3DMark05 with four samples of full-scene anti aliasing enabled. About eight average frames per second behind its own brand's X800XT card in Doom 3, it dropped back slightly in Bunker.
A little lacking in the accessory department, Gigabyte includes a video breakout box with component inputs and S-video, but no composite RCA in. There's also a distinct lack of any DVI to D-Sub adaptor, meaning you'll need a mixed monitor set up of LCD and CRT unless you purchase an additional part. Note that, while it scored the highest overall, all calculations were performed within the 6600GT family. And it's in this category that the NX66T128D clearly outperforms the rest -- it hits the sweet spot for performance and value for money.
