yep - looks like this sucks badly. I was hoping that an 8600GTS woudl be a viable upgrade form my 7900GS - but ill think again.

As soon as the 640MB 8800GTS come down a bit more, then thats the puppy ill be after i reckon.

good review, as you say above, its really incosisten tho.

I have another question, when will you start benchmarking the same tests in Vista?

I really dont ever boot into XP anymore, apart from when im doin my radio show and use Traktor DJ.

Thanks for the response Tim, anxiously awaiting the R600 reviews. :D

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.

it's mentioned in the text - 71W for the 8600 GTS, 43W for the 8600 GT and 40W for the 8500 GT.

Originally Posted by djDEATH
I have another question, when will you start benchmarking the same tests in Vista?

It's something that is top of my list as soon as I get back from Taiwan later this month, so you should see the fruits of the labour some time in May.

"The current GeForce 8800-series hardware and anything from either GeForce 7-series or Radeon X1000-series is only capable of HDCP over a single link DVI connection, meaning that you’re just greeted with a blank screen if you try playing protected content on a 30” monitor."

From what I've read it's possible to output a little bit over 1080p resolution using single-link DVI, so is this acually true if you're using a 32" LCD TV with for example 720p resolution, or are we strictly talking "computer" monitors with massive 25xx x 1900 resolution where this limit will be affecting us?

Originally Posted by Edvuld
"The current GeForce 8800-series hardware and anything from either GeForce 7-series or Radeon X1000-series is only capable of HDCP over a single link DVI connection, meaning that you’re just greeted with a blank screen if you try playing protected content on a 30” monitor."

From what I've read it's possible to output a little bit over 1080p resolution using single-link DVI, so is this acually true if you're using a 32" LCD TV with for example 720p resolution, or are we strictly talking "computer" monitors with massive 25xx x 1900 resolution where this limit will be affecting us?

It's only 30" PC monitors with 2560x1600 resolutions that you need to worry about this 'problem'. 1920x1200 displays use a single link if using DVI, as do 1080p and 720p televisions, too.

Thanks for clearing that up for me =D

Interesting that Hardocp seems to like this card a lot.. yet bit-tech and tomshardware don't

Originally Posted by pendragon
Interesting that Hardocp seems to like this card a lot.. yet bit-tech and tomshardware don't

Most reviews I've seen have said it's a bit on the expensive side, and that's where I was coming from here. I need to do more testing to quantify whether it's worth that extra bit of money or not.

There's also the DX10 unknown, too...

I'm in the process of a PC upgrade. Going from Athlon 2600 and Radeon 9600 to a C2D E6320 and 8800GTS 320. I was originally going to go for the 8600GTS but after reading the review I figured the extra £30 - 40 on the 8800 was money well sent. I realise that any of the 8X00 cards would have been a massive improvement on my current setup but as you can see I don't upgrade often so wanted a bit of future proofing and the 8600's just don't seem to offer that.

Great review by the way

Looking at prices now :
8600GTS Asus , MSI all going for $229 in newegg... how is this card even worth buying escpically if you owned a 7600GT. Its way over priced and ATI and Nvidia have much faster DX9 card for less than that. X1950pro goes for $140 to $160 in newegg , a X1950XT 256MB goes for $200 to $230 , a 7950Gt goes for $200 to $230 and a 7900gs goes for $150 to $170. 8600GT sucks and 8600GTS are way overpriced. I think Nvidia should have increased the Stream processor or should have gone 256bit memory route. This is a very disappointing launch and it fails to exceed 15% margin of error of a 7600GT in alot of games.

This is a tough call. I was really hoping for something a bit more definitive.

My games system is 2yrs old and creaking a bit and I was hoping that I could squeeze out another years use by swapping the 6800 ultra for an 8600gts. But for the improvement I'm not sure I wanna shell out £150, obviously no-one's comparing it to such an old card in their benchmarks but if it's x1950pro type performance then that's a 50% framerate increase (give or take a massive margin of error).

Dunno, might just live another year without AA...or maybe for £110 the x1950pro is a better choice, it's not like my system's going to be called upon to pull DX10 duties before it's mothballed.

Well, I've been playing with an Plait 8600 GT today (not mine, just testing) and I'd say it is slightly better than my X800XL, and about on par with my X1800XT, if not slightly worse.

For £81, its just about good value, but not as good as i'd of hoped.

I just bought an MSI 8600gts from newegg. not bad for 180usd

i'll post a min-review if I can, the one I got is OC'd and has a nonstock cooler.