EVGA e-GeForce 8600 GTS Superclocked

EVGA is another highly respected manufacturer in the graphics card industry. Like BFG, EVGA’s cards are backed up by a lifetime warranty program, only EVGA goes one step further than BFG when it comes to their policy on card modding. Whereas BFG’s lifetime warranty is voided if you modify your card in any way, EVGA’s warranty allows for modifications as long as the card itself isn’t damaged in the process.

Say for instance you want to swap out the stock heatsink/fan cooling unit on your graphics card for a more powerful cooler, but still remain under warranty. Under EVGA’s lifetime warranty program this is allowed, but this is a strict no-no for BFG cards.

One important point to keep in mind with EVGA’s lifetime warranty is that the card must be registered within 30 days of the initial purchase. If you don’t register your card within the first 30 days, the lifetime warranty is replaced with just a 1-year warranty. Fortunately registration is a simple process that can be accomplished on evga.com.



EVGA also provides a line of factory overclocked graphics cards. Their “KO” line of graphics boards combine factory overclocking with highly effective custom-designed EVGA cooling units, while the “Superclocked” boards are just that, cards that are designed to run at superclocked clock speeds that are higher than NVIDIA’s reference specifications.

One unique feature that sets EVGA apart from all the other board partners however is their “Step Up” program.

EVGA’s Step-up program allows EVGA customers to trade-in their existing EVGA graphics card for the latest and greatest model available, as long as the upgrade occurs within 90 days of the initial card purchase. EVGA customers must simply pay the difference between the two cards in order to upgrade. If timed correctly, this feature can protect EVGA card owners from obsolescence; say for instance if NVIDIA were to release a new GeForce 8900 GPU tomorrow, gamers who have recently purchased EVGA cards could upgrade to the new GPU and get the full retail value of their older card on the trade-in. When the GeForce 8800 GTX was released last fall, numerous EVGA card owners stepped up from GeForce 7900 GTOs and 7950 GTs to the brand new 8800 GTX.

The only downside to Step-Up is that you can only use it once, so you should use it wisely.


For the GeForce 8600 GTS GPU EVGA has chosen to keep it simple rather than offer a decked-out card with ACS3 cooling and other extras. EVGA uses NVIDIA’s reference board design and cooling for the e-GeForce 8600 GTS Superclocked. No variations are made to the PCB or underlying components. The reason why? Price. Quite simply, the more bonus features you add to the design of the board, the pricier it gets, and if the card is priced too closely to the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB, most gamers are going to opt for the GeForce 8800 GTS card instead.

As a Superclocked card however, EVGA has chosen to spice up the clock speeds on this board.

The GPU on the e-GeForce 8600 GTS Superclocked runs at 721MHz while the stream processors are clocked at 1560MHz. That’s an increase of 46MHz on the GPU, and 110MHz on the stream processors over the stock NVIDIA speeds. The board’s memory then runs at 1050MHz, a 50MHz improvement over stock.

Software and accessories

EVGA ships the e-GeForce 8600 GTS Superclocked with two DVI adapters, a power cable, and S-Video cable. Again, to keep costs down, EVGA is foregoing a game bundle this time around.