Introduction

nVidia has released their affordable GeForce 8600 GT and GTS today, making DirectX 10 available for people on a smaller budget. In our extensive review of the new chip we already have shown you what the new additions are capable of and how they perform compared to their predecessors.

When a new range of nVBidia cards is released this usually means that all partners are trying to be the first to release a model based on the new chip. In this review we look at cards from Foxconn, MSI, Point of View and XFX. The latter also was kind enough to send us a GeForce 8600 GT.

Foxconn GeForce 8600 GTS

The Foxconn GeForce 8600 GTS that we received is virtually identical to the reference model as discussed in our extensive test. The cooler is exactly the same and the clockspeeds are the normal 675 MHz for the GPU and 1000 Mhz for the memory. The card sports 256MB of GDDR3 memory, two dual-link DVI ports and a PEG power connector. As you will see later on the overclocking capabilities of all GTS cards are very similar, Foxconn managed to get the highest result by 1 MHz and reached 780MHz core speed and 1142 Mhz memory speed. The overclocked setting resulted in a 3DMark06 score of 6454, 12.5% more then the score at normal speeds.

The Foxconn card that will eventually hit the shelves uses a slightly larger heatsink (see picture) and could reach higher overlocking speeds. We have to note that the memory chips on this card will not be cooled by the heatsink, where the reference model card's heatsink does. We did not test this version of the card but as stated before received a card similar to th ereference model by Foxconn.

Onder: de GeForce 8600 zoals Foxconn die uiteindelijk in de winkel wil leggen.

Foxconn chooses not to bundle any games with their card, but we did find two utilities by Farstone, two DVI-to-D-Sub adapters and a compoment cable.

MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-HD-OC

MSI supplies two different GeForce 8600 GTS cards, NX8600-T2D256E-HD is a standard card, but the card we tested is a factory overclocked model. The NX8600-T2D256E-HD-OC comes with a 675MHz GPU clock and 1050MHz memory clock, which is enough to end up at the top of our GeForce 8600 benchmark list. When we tried to overclock the card ourselves we reached a 775MHz GPU clock and 1135Mhz memory clock, similar to the other cards. The card as supplied by MSI is identical to nVBidia's reference model, obviously with a MSI decal on the heatsink. 

A big advantage for MSI is that they bundle the new game Companies of Heroes with the card, a game we will start to take up in our benchmark suite very soon. When writing this review the price of the MSI card is around $ 199 on pre-order, only slightly higher than the other cards, but the bundled game and overclocked settings definitely make it worth a bit more. 

Point of View GeForce 8600 GTS

In is becoming a regular ovccurance that the first new nVidia cards we receive come from Point of View. The 8600 GTS they sent us this time again was the first to arrive and as Point of View is a Dutch company they are usually the first European manufacturer with a decent stock of new cards. Their card is as the other manufacturers' cards based on the reference model and we used this card for our extensive test. The card does not come factory overclocked but when we try and reach higher speeds ourselves the card is able to get to the seocnd place, only 1 MHz below the card by Foxconn.  

In the box we found the card, drivers, a component cable and a DVI-to-D-Sub connector. There is no game in this box, but it is a possibility that in the final release they will opt to bundle a game. At the time of this release the card is availble on pre-order for around $ 190.

XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition

XFX was the only manufacturer that could supply us with a 8600 GT model. We recieved the XXX edition, as the die-hards will know a factory overclocked version of the card. The reference 8600 GT is clocked at 540MHz GPU and 700MHz memory speeds, but the XXX edition is clocked at a whopping 620MHz GPU and 800MHz memory. We even got the speeds a bit higher and could get to 710MHz GPU clock and 840MHz memory. As we stated in our extensivce review the 8600 GT cards have a smaller cooler and no extra PEG connecter. It does sport two DVI ports, SLI compatibility and support for HDCP.

To keep the card at a competetive price point XFX does not bundle any games or software with the XXX edition. We could not get a recommended retail price out of XFX, but we expect the card to surface in stores the dfay after the official introduction.

XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edtion

Next to the XXX Edition of the 8600 GT XFX is releasing a XFX edition of the GTS model of the card. This card has higher speeds than the overclocked model we received from MSI, the card comes with a GPU speed of 730MHz and a memory clock of no less than 1130 MHz. It is no surprise that the XFX card ends up at the top of our benchmark graph. When we strat to overclock ourselves we can reach a GPU clock of 779 MHz and a memory clock of 1140MHZ, similar to the other cards. As the other card the XFX variety looks identical to nVidia's reference model, apart from a metal enforcer on the PCB. We do argue the actual benefit of this, but must admit that it does look nice, especially in a case with sidewindow.

XFX bundels a game with their GTS model; Ghost Recon: Advaced Warfighter, not a bad chioce at all. Also we found all necessary cables and connectors in the box. As with the GT we do not know a price for this XXX edition, but do expect it to surface in the shops very soon.

comparatative graph

This graph shows all the specifications of the different cards we tested. 

Algemeen
Merk	Foxconn	MSI	Point of View	XFX	XFX
Productnaam	GeForce 8600 GTS	NX8600GTS-T2D256E-HD-OC	GeForce 8600 GTS	GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition	GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition
Productcode			R-VGA150843FH	PV-T84J-UDD3	PV-T84G-UDD3
Getest door	Jac Kuipers	Jac Kuipers	Jac Kuipers	Jac Kuipers	Jac Kuipers
Datum test	16-04-2007	16-04-2007	16-04-2007	16-04-2007	16-04-2007
Details	Details	Details	Details	Details	Details
Gemiddelde prijs		€ 199,00	€ 190,00
Specificaties
3D-chip	nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS	nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS	nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS	nVidia GeForce 8600 GT	nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS
Interface	PCI-Express x16	PCI-Express x16	PCI-Express x16	PCI-Express x16	PCI-Express x16
Geheugen - Hoeveelheid	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB
Geheugen - Merk				Qimonda
Geheugen - Type	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3
Geheugen - Toegangstijd				1.4 ns
Klokfrequentie - Chip	675 MHz	690 MHz	675 MHz	620 MHz	730 MHz
Klokfrequentie - Geheugen	1008 MHz	1050 MHz	1008 MHz	800 MHz	1130 MHz
Klokfrequentie - Chip (Max. OC)	780 MHz	775 MHz	779 MHz	710 MHz	779 MHz
Klokfrequentie - Geheugen (Max. OC)	1142 MHz	1135 MHz	1142 MHz	840 MHz	1140 MHz
Video in-/output chip
TV-tuner
Temperatuur sensor
GPU koeling	Actief	Actief	Actief	Actief	Actief
Fan met sensor
Geheugen koeling
Extra stroom aansluiting
D-Sub uitgang	0	0	0	0	0
DVI uitgang	2	2	2	2	2
HDMI uitgang
TV-uitgang - Composiet
TV-uitgang - S-Video
Video-ingang - Composiet
Video-ingang - S-Video
Component-uitgang
nVidia SLI-compatible
ATI Crossfire-compatible
HDCP compatible
Meegeleverd
Composiet kabel
S-Video kabel
DVI -> D-Sub plug
Afstandsbediening
DVD software
Overige software	Farstone RestoreIT 7, Farstone VirtualDrive Pro 10
Games		Company of Heroes			Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
Benchmarks
3DMark06 - Overall [1280x1024]	5737	5824	5742	5336	6188
3DMark06 - Overall [1280x1024] - Na overklokken	6454	6300	6449	5815	6433
Prey [1280x1024]	57.1 fps	57.4 fps	57.2 fps	53.6 fps	61.3 fps
Serious Sam II HDR [1280x1024]	69.0 fps	69.9 fps	69.4 fps	63.9 fps	74.5 fps
FarCry 1.4 SM3 HDR [1280x1024]	61.0 fps	61.7 fps	61.0 fps	56.0 fps	66.6 fps

Benchmarks

We tetsed the cards on our standard benchmark system consisting of a Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor, ASUS P5W DH Deluxe mainboard, 1 GB DDR2-800 geheugen and a  Western Digital Raptor 74 GB harddisk. If you want to know how the GeForce 8600 compares to other cards please check out our extensive 8600 test elsewhere on the site. We have run the 3DMark06 benchmark twice, once on standard speeds and once on the maximum stable overclocked speeds we could achieve.

Conclusion

We can not be anything alse but very excited about the GeForce 8600 GT and GTS cards. We already wrote in our extensive review that when you have a 17 or 19 inch TFT monitor these cards are sufficient and any faster cards would be overkill. With these new cards you can purchase a DirectX10 card for under $ 200, not a bad deal at all. 

We can not recommend any of these cards seperately, as they all could reach similar speeds when overclocking and the cards are basically all identical to nVidia's reference model. 

We do like the XFX cards as they come factory overclocked to reasonably high speeds, meaning you will have warranty on your overclocked card as standard. The MSI card we like as it comes bundled with the game Company of Heroes. Apart from thes etwo very small advantages of these cards we think that you have a very good deal with any of these cards tested.