Albatron Technology recently released its new PC6600U Graphics Card on the heels of nVIDIA's GeForce 6600 graphics chipsets. The PC6600U is a PCI-Express (x16) based card which employs the new Heatpipe Technology, one of the latest advancement in cooling strategies. Along with high speed BGA packaged memory, this new graphics card hits the market touting excellent performance features and attractive pricing advantages.

Albatron chose to employ the standard version GeForce 6600 chipset on the PC6600U over the high-performing, luxury GeForce 6600GT chipset. The strategy was to take the low cost road and then boost performance, providing customers a powerful VGA card with a reasonable price tag. The result was a 6600 based card whose performance was almost comparable to 6600GT based cards and significantly more powerful than other standard 6600 cards on the market.

The Heatpipe cooling technology that is used with the card improves on traditional cooling strategies providing more efficient heat dissipation capabilities. The heat-conductive copper heatpipes absorb heat from the GPU and dissipates the heat through attached aluminum heat sinks. Within the heatpipe itself is a liquid that is vaporized at the end closest to the GPU (the hot end). The vapor moves to the cool end of the pipe where it is condensed back into a liquid and wicked back to the front of the pipe to start the process again.

Albatron chose to match its 350 MHz chipset with high-speed BGA packaged, 128M, 2.8 ns memory. The high speed BGA packaged memory provides much higher overclocking potential than the more traditional TSOP (Thin Small Outline Package) packaged memory, which is good news for gamers. Albatron used 3Dmark benchmark utilities to test PC6600U performance. As mentioned, the scores were very close to 6600GT based graphics cards. Scores also exceeded other standard 6600 cards by 24% (note).

The PC6600U uses the PCI-Express x16 interface and supports Microsoft DirectX 9.0c and Shader Model 3.0 providing the optimal environment for the 3D gamer and graphic designers. The accessories include an HDTV cable which supports S interfaces and AV interfaces as well as HDTV. The software bundle includes WinDVD creator and the ARX FATALIS 3D game and a 5-in-1 game pack.

The PC6600U is ready to hit the market with force with one of nVIDIA's most recent GPUs, high overclocking potential, high-speed memory and advanced cooling technology. Consumers will also be able to obtain a high performance card at reasonable prices making the PC6600U a card to keep an eye on.