The Cards

PNY’s 6200 TurboCache Products

For NVIDIA’s TurboCache cards, I received a pair of samples from add-in card vendor PNY, common to most people reading this probably. 

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PNY GeForce 6200 TurboCache w/ 32MB of on-board buffer

The 32MB version of the TurboCache products is shown here and came with the following specifications:

  • Core: NV 6200 TC
  • Memory bus: 64-bits
  • Memory chips: 2.8ns DDR BGA
  • Memory speed: 350 MHz

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PNY’s GeForce 6200 TC w/ 32MB on-board

The second card I received was the 64MB version that looks very similar, but has some important technical differences.

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PNY GeForce 6200 TurboCache w/ 64MB on-board frame buffer

This card has the follow specs:

  • Core: NV 6200 TC
  • Memory bus: 64-bits
  • Memory chips: 3.6ns DDR TSOP
  • Memory speed: 275 MHz

You should notice that the 64 MB card, though it does have MORE memory, it is using SLOWER memory as well.  This turns out to be a very crucial piece of information when we look at the performance of these two cards against each other. 

Both the NVIDIA 6200 TC cards are powered solely by the PCI Express bus and use passive cooling, even though there is a fan header on the PCB.  Both also sport a single DVI, VGA and TV output port, though this will vary from vendor to vendor.  Both cards are able to address up to 128 MB of total memory, including their local buffer and system memory.

ATI’s X300 SE HyperMemory

The ATI X300 SE HyperMemroy card we received was ATI’s reference card built around their lower cost offering.

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ATI’s X300 SE HyperMemory w/ 32 MB on-board frame buffer

ATI’s specs are as follows:

  • Core: ATI X300 SE HM @ 325 MHz
  • Memory bus: 64-bits
  • Memory chips: 2.8ns DDR BGA
  • Memory speed: 350 MHz

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The specifications seem to put the ATI X300 SE HM card right on par with the 32MB TurboCache card from PNY.  Both have the same memory interface of 64-bits, same memory speeds and packaging, etc.  The Radeon X300 SE HM is also a passively cooled GPU that doesn’t require the use of an external power connection.  However, it does not have a DVI connection, instead relying on VGA and TV output only.  This card is able to address up to 128 MB of total memory as well.

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