Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS

bit disapointed really, expected these as next gen cards to be up there with the likes of the 7900's....8800 320mb still seems the best way to go if you must have DX10...plus they can be got for around £160 now.

Maybe it's just me, but since Graphics cards used to have between 128MB and 256MB of RAM on them and they ran fine, why is it that a 320MB card which is replacing the equivalent 128MB card has difficulties with textures?

one thing this does tell us is where NVidia may be going with the supposed 'Ultra' model or the 8900.

It will probably be a G80 scale or larger in terms of sp clusters, but have the increased texture address sections and the new VP.

as far as the article itself it looks like gamers will go for the 8800GTS models and the 8600 will be the baby of the HTPC guys. (especially with the HDMI, new VP, and HDCP/Vista Media support)

Awesome Review as usual Tim tho i have a few questions:
1)In terms of an older system( 939 x4200,2gig ram...etc) Would this be a viable upgrade to play future games at averagely decent settings? E.G. Crysis?

2)Ive got a 7800GTX and would it be worth the upgrade? or would i just be wasting my money on Dx10? Or should i at lest wait for ATi based stuffs?

Ive seen the various GTS on sale @ Ebuyer for under £130/40 and add to the fact that you can get £10 off the purchase makes sense to me.

Why can't someone just make a card that clocks at like, 5ghz, has like, 1024 pipelines, and 2 gigs of ram.

Is it it me, or are cards just not progressing as much as they used to.

I remember back in the day, of th FX series, and my old ati 9700pro, that thing ran anything, and can still hold its own in game that use the source engine, as well as others.

I'm disapointed. I think i'm gonna need an 8800 GTS 320Mb instead D:

at the price point it's at.. the 8600 is just not worth it when 8800gts 320 gives you so much more for a tad more money :-/ .....well, unless you're a hardcore video editor

a hint: FOR THE SAKE OF F*** ATI/AMD LAUNCH THAT GRAPHIC CARD ALREADY!!!!!
sorry.

No bit-tech seal or ranking out of 10, I'm a little disappointed and I guess I will wait to see the offering from ATI in may.

heh... waiting game this is... for the prices, drivers, and the competitor i.e. ati(obviously)

8600 aint worth teh money

No agp version at this price point?

I find that strange

No agp version at this price point?

I find that strange

Does nvidia make chipsets, or support motherboards that use AGP in our Vista era? Nope.

As to the performance, i guess it was to be expected. It's about right (midrange now = top end then) but i was expecting at least a 10 frame gain...

Glad to see my 7900GTX is holding up to the next gen cards. It certainly hit my wallet with everything it had. Maybe I'll get another one (2nd hand?) to keep it company before I go DX10...

I would like to know how these perform in sli, any plans to test this later Tim?

Originally Posted by Mathmarauder
No bit-tech seal or ranking out of 10, I'm a little disappointed and I guess I will wait to see the offering from ATI in may.

Unfortunately, there was just no way I could come up with a score because I still can't really gauge where the card's performance actually falls. It's just incredibly inconsistent across the games we've tested. The only thing that was consistent was that it generally sucked with 4xAA enabled.

Originally Posted by atanum141
Awesome Review as usual Tim tho i have a few questions:
1)In terms of an older system( 939 x4200,2gig ram...etc) Would this be a viable upgrade to play future games at averagely decent settings? E.G. Crysis?

DirectX 10 is such a massive unknown and the problem here is that its DirectX 9 performance is a little shady too - sometimes it's where you would expect, other times it's low. I need to do some more shader heavy benchmarking when I get back home.

2)Ive got a 7800GTX and would it be worth the upgrade? or would i just be wasting my money on Dx10? Or should i at lest wait for ATi based stuffs?

There is no DirectX 10 content yet, so because this isn't a dead-certain DirectX 9 performer it just doesn't make sense to buy right now if you're a gamer. By the time DirectX 10 content turns up, there will be benchmarks out there comparing ATI and Nvidia's hardware. As for upgrading from a 7800 GTX - you'll get no more performance, it'll just be added DirectX 10 functionality. If you want more performance, go for the 8800 GTS 320MB.

Ive seen the various GTS on sale @ Ebuyer for under £130/40 and add to the fact that you can get £10 off the purchase makes sense to me.

£130 is a reasonable price, but again, no DX10 content and shady DX9 performance against the X1950 Pro (which can be bought for £110ish) makes the decision a tricky one. It's all about balancing it up and price in the mid-range is incredibly important.

Nice review but where is the 8800 Ultra or 8850 that everyone's been talking about? My 90 day step-up is running down :(

you'll have to wait for that one ;)

Seems like the 7900GS still out performs it all be it on a DX9 code path, Kind of reminds me of when the 9500 was out an ATI launched the 9600 which was very slightly slower in all aspects.
Kind of a shame really.

I'm going to wait for the r600 chip, want it seen in comparison with the 8800 gtx

Any specs on power consumption? It's just that I've got a HTPC that I occasionally run Oblivion on, but it only has a 300W microATX PSU, so that severely limits the upgrade choices I have. It would be nice to get an 8000 series card that wouldn't kill the PSU. Other than that I'm going to have to hope somebody eventually brings out a 500W+ micro ATX unit so I can replace the 6600GT that's currently occupying the PCIe slot.

OK, Is it worth buying one of these 8600 GT's to replace an ATi X800XT ?? I'd only be using it for basic gaming on a Viewsonic 2025 (20"), and yes, I know you'd tell me to get an 8800 GTS 320Mb, but money is a little tight ATM.

Originally Posted by ralph.pickering
Any specs on power consumption? It's just that I've got a HTPC that I occasionally run Oblivion on, but it only has a 300W microATX PSU, so that severely limits the upgrade choices I have. It would be nice to get an 8000 series card that wouldn't kill the PSU. Other than that I'm going to have to hope somebody eventually brings out a 500W+ micro ATX unit so I can replace the 6600GT that's currently occupying the PCIe slot.

Read the article mate - thermal design power at stock settings is 71W

Originally Posted by Mankz_91
OK, Is it worth buying one of these 8600 GT's to replace an ATi X800XT ?? I'd only be using it for basic gaming on a Viewsonic 2025 (20"), and yes, I know you'd tell me to get an 8800 GTS 320Mb, but money is a little tight ATM.

It's worth saving up. The 8600 series barely match the X1950 series for performance, whereas an 8800GTS 320 is significant step up for only a few quid more.

If you've survived with an X800 this far, I'm sure you can wait a bit longer to get the 8800.

and with some luck you'll even see a price drop for the 8800 gts 320 MB once ati releases the r600 series