The performances tests results

All tests were performed with the following system setup:

Motherboard: Abit BX6 revision 2.0
CPU: Intel Pentium III 450mhz
Memory: 64mb PC100 SDram (LGS)
IDE first channel Primary port: Quantum Fireball KA 9.1gig UDMA66
IDE second channel Primary port: Kenwood 52X True X
AGP slot: Gigabyte GA-660 TNT2 32Mb AGP
PCI slot number 4: Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live Value
ISA slot number 2: US Robotic 56k X2 modem
OS: Win98 4.10
DirectX 6.1

All tests were performed with the VSYNC disabled unless otherwise specified.

The Drivers

Two sets of drivers have been used to test this graphic card. The first set of drivers which are drivers version 4.11.01.0203 have been sent to me by Gigabyte's engineers. The second set of drivers I used were the Nvidia reference drivers built 188 available here from the Nvidia web site. These are the best drivers available at this moment to my knowledge at least this is what is appearing in the below results I obtained while comparing the results I had with them to the ELSA CD drivers.

The 2D results

Winbench99 Business Graphic Winmark

As we can see here, the Turbo function seems to have no effects at all on the 2D mode. Note that the performance of the GA-660 is on par with the ELSA ERAZOR III where the later is using the Nvidia reference drivers built 188.

The 3D results

As we can see here, a very slight and almost insignificant advantage goes to the drivers version 188 for the GA-660 on all 16-bit tests as well as on the 32-bit color mode. A very significative advantage goes to the GA-660 on all tests especially on the 32-bit color mode as we can see in the above tests results. According to this, we can conclude that the Gigabyte drivers version 203 have been very well designed compared to the ELSA ERAZOR 3 CD drivers as there is almost no significative performance gain between these drivers and Nvidia built 188 reference drivers.

Once again, we see a very slight performance advantage for the drivers version 188 for the GA-660. Note the huge performance difference in favor of the Gigabyte GA-660 on the ELSA ERAZOR III on all tests and especially on the 32-bit color depth tests. Note that the Turbo function has almost no impact on the Crusher.dm2 tests results...

Quake2 version3.20 Timedemo testing procedure used:

Once the demo has completed, I used to type again "demomap demo2.dm2" to run it another shot

All Quake2 tests were performed 3 times each and the mean
of the results obtained is the one displayed in the above tests results.

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3D Mark 99

On the 3D Max99 benchmark, I used the Nvidia reference drivers built 188 for the ERAZOR III graphic card and the Gigabyte drivers built 203 for the GA-660 graphic card. As you can see, even with the GA-660 Turbo function disabled, this test is showing a clear advantage to the Gigabyte graphic card.

Same test as above except that the GA-660 Turbo function has been enabled. As we can see here, the GA-660 Turbo function apparently doesn't gives as much performance gain under the Direct3D texture rendering mode as it gives with the OpenGL texture rendering mode.

Conclusions

All in all, the Gigabyte GA-660 TNT2 graphic card is a fantastic graphic card. Its very high level of performance is making out of it a sure value for the gamer enthusiasts. Whether or not the Turbo function is enabled, this graphic card is delivering very high performances. Besides, the heat of the graphic chipset is so well cooled by the fan and heatsink assembly that even when the card is Overclocked, it stays within a very acceptable temperature range. As a fact, the highest temperature raise I've noticed between the Turbo Off and Turbo On conditions never exceeded 3 degrees centigrade.

Please visit Gigabyte's Web site for more information.