6600GT -- Leadtek vs. Chaintech vs. EVGA

[Stark]

i've already been through 2 leadtek 6600GT cards. either the cards stink or my new system's pcie card is messed up. see link in my sig for the full story.

 

[expostfacto]

I went through as much trouble shooting as I could stand with the first one and rma'ed it through NewEgg. I tried several different drivers and settings with no luck. One of the Windows' Crash Analysis reports stated, "This issue may occur if the display driver is caught in an infinite loop while it waits for the video hardware to become idle. This issue typically indicates a problem with the video hardware or that the display driver cannot program the hardware correctly."

I received the second Leadtek 6600GT and Prince of Persia will play with no problems but Splinter Cell crashes the computer. I haven't had time to spend on testing this one but 67.66 caused green artifacts to appear in Splinter Cell and upon quitting the game my computer crashed. 66.93 and Splinter Cell work together except for crashing my computer on quitting the game. Given the fact that others are running similar systems with the Leadtek card without problems I'm inclined to rma this one, too.

I wrote to Leadtek Support and they think it might be a hardware problem since changing drivers didn't solve the problem.

Any thoughts on this?

The question I have, should I rma through NewEgg again or go to Leadtek? I am still within the time window for NewEgg.

Also I rma'ed the Antec Neopower 480 (Zipzoomfly, so far no problems) and went with the OCZ Modstream 520 for future upgrades and add-ons. In my opinion the Neopower is a better power supply except that it lacks the beef on the 12v rails to run SLI (according to current theory and Asus power requirements for the A8N with a heavy power load). I would like to see a Neopower version of their EPS 550.

Thanks

 

[imported_humey]

He didnt include BFG btw, i like and only use Chaintech and i had no probs with a faulty card over 18months old getting it replaced it was a ti 4600, BFG is new to me in UK and claim 10% o/c on 6800 range well this is true and untrue at same time
Nvidia prelaunched n40 with test ref cards that had to be 400/1000 to be called ultra but left speeds open to makers of cards adding a card with 450/1200 can be a ultra extreme, this also was to fool ATI.
Cards launched with 400/1100 and a few makers using 425/1100 like ega and chaintech not claiming they are o/c btw unlike BFG, all ive read in forums is BFG card probs but very good cust support.

I got chaintech 6800 Ultra at 460/1220 no bios mods yet and thats artifact free in 3d mark 2005, i can go higher and it will artifact in benches but ok in games. 52C max temps.

 

[grimlykindo]

My Leadtek 6600gt extreme didn't work until I used drivercleaner and the Beta 71.25 Drivers. Now it realy rocks. My splinter cell configurator says the same thing, but it works great!

 

[jgrissel]

I'm RMAing my Leadtek 6600GT PCI-e tomorrow. I've tried every differnt driver I can throw at it. I get random lockups in every 3d game I've tried. Worse, I get massive artifacting anytime I'm in 32bit 3d mode. 16bit will ususally work for a little while before locking up. This is all with standard clocking and a clean WinXp install. I'd go with a different card if I were doing it all over again.

 

[Melchior]

eVGA

 

[caz67]

Leadtek , all the way..They offer the best cooling solution IMO, great overclockers as well.

 

[Gentle]

expostfacto,

Did you have to patch Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time to get it to run on the 6600GT?

Gentle

 

[imported_humey]

That big bulky tank looking leadtek dont run to cool and reviews show it to be average even at lower out the box 400/1100 speeds, i would look at it and think it was some special card but its not.

 

[PascalT]

BFG/Leadtek/MSI would be my top 3 choices.

 

[expostfacto]

Gentle, I did patch the game with the first card. When I received the second card I uninstalled and re-installed both games using the new cds that came with the new card. I didn't patch Prince of Persia with the second card because it worked right away with no problems.

Thanks grimlykindo, the 71.25 beta drivers solved the Splinter Cell problem. Splinter Cell configurator, as with yours, still reports a problem but the game runs. I had one lockup with Splinter Cell after I loaded 71.25 but after I rebooted everything worked.

71.25 has an interesting pedigree. Here is part of guru3d's description,

"A new Forceware with build 71.25 appeared on the web today. These drivers are date stamped at the 10th of January 2005. These drivers are WHQL (Microsoft tested) signed but do not have support for all NVIDIA graphics cards, only series 6 and a few Quadro's are supported:"

guru3d link

I went through some testing after I loaded the driver using Aquamark3, Coolbits, and adjusting bios settings. Basically, I lowered the settings ran Aquamark3 and the games and then ramped things up and did the same thing. The card seems stable.

Thanks again for the help. Let the games begin!