NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS Performance Preview

Closing Comments

Closing Comments

Based on our limited time with the card, fan noise and operating temperature shouldn't be much of an issue. Although we have had quieter graphics cards, the noise on the GeForce 8600 GTS was not overly noticeable and as we have shown, the temperatures were remarkably low considering its high clocks. For most enthusiasts hoping to grab an affordable and decent mid-range DirectX 10 graphics card however, the performance is probably the main concern and that's where we have some doubts (even though it's a given that beta drivers are in use, experience tells us not to expect wonders out of official drivers).

Firstly, the performance gap between the GeForce 8600 GTS and the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB, is huge. Since the 8600 GTS is the bridge between the mid-range 8600 series and the higher end 8800 series, we expected the margin to be smaller. As it is, the scores we got from our benchmarks show our overclocked GeForce 8600 GTS having trouble fending off older cards like the Radeon X1950 PRO. What then for the standard version? We can't help but wonder if the 128-bit memory bandwidth is holding back the GeForce 8600 GTS, especially at the higher resolutions that we tested. After all, all the other competitors were using a 256-bit memory bus or wider. In other words, it seems that the GeForce 7900 and 7950 series have more longevity than we expected, since these cards still manage to be competitive with the newcomer. DirectX 10 is the only differentiator.

Due to its relatively low temperatures, it is conceivable that the GeForce 8600 series could turn out to excel in the overclocking department. Unfortunately that was something we couldn't adequately test out for ourselves - NVIDIA's nTune utility did not work properly for the new card and we couldn't hold onto the card long enough to try using ATI Tools, which ironically, appears to do the trick.

It is early days yet, with the GeForce 8600 GTS running on beta ForceWare drivers. However, the performance hasn't been as impressive as our expectations and we don't think there's much more NVIDIA could do, especially if you remember that this is an overclocked version that we tested. The GeForce 8600 series is targeted at the mid-range anyway and this may just be the level of performance NVIDIA intended for this segment. At the very least, consumers will get to enjoy DirectX 10 effects, (if and when they are finally used in games.) However, with prices rumored to be from the US$199 to 249 range, it could be a hard sell to persuade users not to spend a bit more for the GeForce 8800 GTS. Still, we'll be doing a proper review of the GeForce 8600 GTS for the actual release date (17 April) and maybe we will have a different opinion with the official drivers and perhaps another card. Stay tuned!