We managed to overclock the GA660 Plus only 5MHz over the turbo clock of 170/180MHz (graphics/memory), to 175/185. When we pushed the speed anymore, we saw graphical glitches or the machine froze. This would be disappointing if it were not for the fact that the turbo clock settings are already so high for a non-Ultra TNT2. Gigabyte is guaranteeing you a 170/180MHz overclock out of the box for a low price, so even if things don't go much farther, there's no reason to complain.
So how fast is it? Read on…
Test System
Pentium III 500
Gigabyte GA-BX2000 440BX mainboard
128MB of PC100 CAS-2 memory
Tekram DC390U2W SCSI card
IBM DGVS09U 9GB UW SCSI hard drive
SoundBlaster AWE 64 sound card
Intel InBusiness 10/100 Network Adapter
Detonator 2.08 NVIDIA Reference Drivers
Windows 98
We benchmarked the GA660 Plus at its stock setting (149/166) and its turbo setting in all tests. We also benchmarked OpenGL performance with the card at its highest overclockable speed of 175/185. A Gigabyte GA660 TNT2 (not the Plus) core clocked to 125MHz with 32MB of SDRAM clocked to 150MHz was used for comparison.
Quake 2 demo1.dm2 tests OpenGL performance in a normal single player setting. Crusher.dm2 tests OpenGL performance in an intensive multi-player environment. To get each score Quake 2 demo1.dm2 was run until a consistent score was achieved (usually four times). V-sync was disabled.
The GA660 Plus performs admirably in Quake 2 in all tests. It blows the old GA660, running at the stock TNT2 speed of 125MHz graphics and 150MHz memory, out of the proverbial water. And with its 128-bit memory bus, it leaves the 64-bit cards we've tested recently in the dust. When looking at the Crusher scores, it is interesting to note how little difference there is between 800x600 and 1024x768. This is due to Crusher being CPU limited with the PIII 500 at those resolutions. It isn't until 1600x1200 that the GA660 Plus loses steam as its fill-rate limitations kick in.
