The GeForce 8600 GTS/GT cards

Just prior to today’s launch we received a handful of retail GeForce 8600 GTS cards from NVIDIA’s board partners.

ASUS EN8600 GTS TOP

Top of the ASUS card

ASUS’ EN8600 GTS TOP arrived first. Being a “TOP” board, the card of course comes overclocked from the factory by ASUS. ASUS didn’t slack around with the board’s speeds either, opting to clock the EN8600 GTS TOP at a whopping 745MHz on the GPU, while the stream processors run at 1,620MHz. That’s an improvement of 70MHz on the graphics core, and 170MHz on the shaders. But ASUS doesn’t stop there, choosing to overclock the memory to 1145MHz (2290MHz effective). This change nets the ASUS board an additional 4.6GB/sec of peak memory bandwidth.

As you can see, ASUS’ EN8600 GTS TOP is an exact replica of NVIDIA’s reference board design for the GeForce 8600 GTS, but this practice of using the reference design for the first wave of cards when a new GPU is announced is pretty common, as it allows NVIDIA’s board partners to get their cards to market quicker. ASUS does spice the package up however by including a copy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. inside the card’s packaging.

The second card we received came from XFX, represented with their GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition.

XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX

Note the plate on the top of the XXX

Like ASUS, XFX relies on NVIDIA’s reference board design, and also like ASUS, XFX overclocks their board from the factory, opting for clock speeds of 1566MHz for the shaders (stream processors) and 730MHz for the GPU. Finally, the board’s memory is clocked at 1130MHz.

For added cooling, one feature XFX has added to many of their higher-end SKUs like the XXX is their unique aluminum plate, which rests at the top of the card. The plate acts like a heatsink, helping to transfer heat from the board’s PCB to the plate, where it can then be dispersed by nearby cool air from a system fan. This helps to keep overall board temperatures down.

Whereas in the past XFX has provided five or more SKUs for a given NVIDIA GPU, this time around XFX plans to keep it simple, offering three distinct SKUs: a basic card, that relies entirely on NVIDIA’s reference board design and runs at the stock NVIDIA speeds, a midrange “Extreme” card, which is mildly overclocked for added performance (in the case of the XFX 8600 GTS Extreme, the card runs at 720MHz core/1566MHz shaders/1090MHz memory).

Coinciding with today’s GeForce 8600 launch, XFX is also announcing a revised warranty policy. From today forward, XFX’s double lifetime warranty will also cover cards that have been modified with aftermarket coolers, provided the card wasn’t physically damaged in the process. Previously XFX voided the warranty if the card was modded. This new policy includes all GeForce 6 and higher cards, so it’s pretty comprehensive.



The most recent GeForce 8600 GTS card we’ve received comes from EVGA, with the card being their e-GeForce 8600 GTS Superclocked.

EVGA e-GeForce 8600 GTS Superclocked

As you can see, EVGA uses the reference board design

As its name implies, the Superclocked board runs at speeds higher than stock, with EVGA overclocking the board to 721MHz core/1560MHz shaders and 1050MHz on the memory.

The e-GeForce 8600 GTS Superclocked continues to carry EVGA’s lifetime warranty, which also covers cards that have been modded with aftermarket cooling. As long as the end user registers their card with EVGA and doesn’t physically damage the card or its components, EVGA’s lifetime warranty is valid. Besides the warranty coverage, another reason why EVGA’s cards have proven so popular among enthusiasts is EVGA’s unique Step Up program, which allows EVGA card owners to upgrade their graphics card as long as it occurs within 90 days of the initial card purchase.

The final card we’re taking a look at today is XFX’s GeForce 8600 GT card, the XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX.

XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX

Top of the XXX card

This board uses a slightly different cooler than the reference GeForce 8600 GT card, as you can see it’s cooler looks similar to the heatsink/fan unit used on GeForce 6600 GT cards way back in the days. You also can’t miss XFX’s black PCB and fluorescent green DVI connectors, which have been featured on a number of their cards lately.

The XFX GeForce 8600 GT is clocked at 620MHz core/800MHz memory. While its stream processors run at 1355MHz.

While today’s cards are closely based on NVIDIA’s reference design and cooling, already we’ve received word that Gigabyte will be integrating the second generation of their Silent Pipe technology into their GeForce 8500/8600 lines. The GPUs will be cooled entirely with heat pipes, generating no noise in the process. In addition, the cards will be bundled with the RTS Supreme Commander.

Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GTS card

Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GT card

Gigabyte GeForce 8500 GT card

We’ll definitely be eager to see how these cards unique coolers perform when they debut later this month.