Cheap gaming computer

Power on the Cheap

Known for its assortment of graphics high rollers, BFGTech cast some doubt on yours truly by claiming it would bring high-performance gaming to those on a budget. I mean, why would it risk ruining its reputation for making the fastest and most upscale videocards in the market by coughing up a sloppy budget card? But as soon as its shiny new GeForce 6600 GT OC for old-school AGP systems arrived at my doorstep, my sniggering skepticism changed into serious fascination when the card started running benchmarks like no one’s business.

Yep, BFGTech has hit the price-to-performance sweet spot dead center. How does it perform this exceptional feat? By carefully jacking up the standard GeForce 6600 500MHz engine clock setting to the 525MHz mark while overclocking the memory clock to 1,050MHz for an increased memory bandwidth at 2.5GB/sec. Then it mixes together dual 400MHz RAMDACs, high-speed GDDR3 memory, 8-pipe Superscalar GPU architecture, DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0 support, and Forceware Unified drivers and comes up with a nimble card that runs slightly faster than other Nvidia 6600 competitors—and all at a price that’s easy to swallow.

The GeForce 6600 GT OC benchmark scores reflect the muscle gained from overclocking. This was most evident in Doom 3 running at 1280x1024 resolution with 2x AA and 4x AF enabled, where it ran at a silky smooth 52fps. Watching the card devour frames in both UT2004 and Far Cry really drove home the point that this is an impressive, affordable videocard solution—especially considering its lowly 128MB of GDDR3 RAM. Even the Painkiller tests topped the 50fps barrier.

The 6600 GT OC uses a large, shiny copper heat sink and fan to provide not only snazzy views through your computer’s window case, but superior cooling over standard aluminum-based thermal solutions as well. This videocard also features dual DVI, HD, and S-Video ports. With a lifetime warranty, 24-hour technical support, and a new www.bfggaming.com file and patch download server, BFGTech shows it can deliver on its promise.

So, why haven’t you upgraded already?

MANUFACTURER: BFGTech PRODUCT: GeForce 6600 GT OC 128MB DDR AGP Videocard PRICE: $229