Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
Radeon Adrenalin 2020 Edition Driver Overview
Guru3D Winter 2019 PC Buyer Guide
Corsair QL120 and QL140 RGB fan review
Promo: Windows 10 Pro for $13 With Office 2016 For $33
Corsair Void RGB Elite Wireless Headset review
Team Group PD400 Portable SSD review
AMD Athlon 3000G review
Team Group T-Force Delta Max 1 TB SSD review
Guru3D Rig of the Month - November 2019
ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore review

New Downloads
AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.12.2 driver download
GeForce 441.66 WHQL driver download
CPU-Z download v1.91
GPU-Z Download v2.28.0
3DMark Download v2.11.6846 + Port Royale
HWiNFO64 Download v6.20
AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.12.1 driver download
Crystal DiskMark Download v7.0.0f
AMD Ryzen Master Utility Download v2.1.0.1424
Quake II RTX Download v1.2


New Forum Topics
Possible AMD+Vulkan (or RDR2 implementation) tessellation issue RADEON Adrenalin 2020 - v19.12.2 GeForce Graphics Drivers 441.66 WHQL - Download & Discussion Creative Labs shows high-end Sound BlasterX AE-9 AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.12.2 driver download & discussion [OFFICIAL] Windows 10 - 19H2 - RTM Guru3D Winter 2019 PC Buyer Guide RX Vega Owners Thread, Tests, Mods, BIOS & Tweaks ! (cont.) New Upcoming ATI/AMD GPU's Thread: Leaks, Hopes & Aftermarket GPU's Part 2 Trying to install very old Win 7 drivers in Win 10. Getting "unsigned" error even in Test Mode.




Guru3D.com » Review » XFX GeForce 8600 GT Fatal1ty Edition review » Page 2

XFX GeForce 8600 GT Fatal1ty Edition review - Page 2 (In the box)

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 06/30/2007 01:00 PM [ ] 0 comment(s)

Tweet


GeForce 8500 & 8600

To get you a better understanding of what product range we are dealing with let's have a look at some specs that I placed into a table.

  GeForce 8500 GT GeForce 8600 GT GeForce 8600 GTS
Stream Processors 16 32 32
Core clock (MHz) 450 540 675
Shader clock (MHz) 900 1180 1450
Memory clock (MHz) x2 400 700 1000
Memory DDR2 gDDR3 gDDR3
Memory bus 128-bit 128-bit 128-bit
Memory bandwidth (GB/sec) 12.8 22.4 32
Transistor count 210 289 289
HDCP compatible No No Yes

Let's analyze a little. First off, the 8800 GTS and GTX are brilliantly performing cards. They have a lot power thanks to the sheer number of Stream processors (shader processors). The GTX has 128 units, the GTS cards have 96 shader units. If you do some generic math you'd know I expected the mid range products to have 48 shader units, but that's not the case. Merely 32 units are present in the 8600 series and actually a very shallow 16 on the 8500. Now since we are looking at a 8600 card today let's keep focus on that one.

The 32 shader units inside the GPU is not a lot, but for a mid-range product it could be enough if you give the product the proper what I call "framebuffer performance". The memory on your graphics card is very influential when you look at its bandwidth (the data speed which the GPU can work (read/write/copy) in. So I was surprised to see a 128-bit bus as in 2007 we should have really moved towards a 256-bit bus. 256-bit memory is dirt cheap so that's just not a logical step from my point of view. It's simple, the difference between memory for 128-bit versus 256-bit is half the bandwidth and has a very intense effect on the overall framerate of your games.

I would not be surprised to see 256-bit memory bus mid-range products later on in this year. Next: what's the physical difference between the 8600 GT and GTS you ask? Nothing, except the clocks and likely internal GPU voltage. So if you receive a GT that can overclock well, you could be able to bring it close to GTS speeds and save 50 bucks. Really it's the same GPU yet specified slower. Also good to know, every feature that is present on the 8800 series is also available on this chip architecture. Please read our reference GeForce 8800 GTX review for full documentation on these features.

So as you can understand the cards all will have full DX10 compatibility, which brings us to Microsoft Vista. I'll leave the driver discussion as it is right now but notice that only the 8600 GTS will have HDCP support straight out of the box.

So the tested 8600 GT today does not support HDCP content protection.

This brings us to XFX

The Fatality brand cards card are targeted at a very wide audience; today's tested card with a sales price of roughly 169 USD.

But what does that Fatality version entail ? Well, this is a pre-overclocked GeForce 8600 GT which offers higher than reference core and memory frequencies. NVIDIA’s recommended clock speeds are 540 MHz GPU and 1.4 GHz memory (gDDR3 - 128-bit) for the GeForce 8600 GT series of cards. XFX has this card fully warranted for two years and pre-overclocked (default) at 620 MHz GPU and 1.7 GHz memory. Next we are looking at a nice dark design PCB and the thing that you'll love the most is it's passive cooling, which works really well as our tests will show. XFX promotes this under the marketing phrase Silent But Deadly (SBD).

The 8600 GT comes with two dual-link DVI connectors. Dual-link DVI allows extremely high resolution gaming up-to 2560x1600 (XHD as the industry would love to call that = Extreme High Definition) and all the sweetness in the form of HDR support and that final standard Shader Model 3.

Included in the box you'll find next to the XFX Fatality graphics card this lot:

  • The graphics card
  • DVI -> VGA dongle
  • SVIDEO cable
  • Quick install guide
  • Driver CD, which includes NVIDIA® ForceWare™ unified graphics drivers, Full installation manual .pdf

Guru3D XFX Geforce 8600 GT Fatality 256MB

The bundle is mediocre; no HD 3-way RCA bracket. Just the graphics card, SVideo cable, VGA dongle, drivers and manual.  We can discuss all day about this, yet XFX clearly kept the bundle so skinny to keep the sales price down. So is that a bad thing ? I don't think so. The product as tested today costs roughly 170 EUR  and can be found in the stores right now. Last thing you should know, your warranty is 2 years.




14 pages 1 2 3 4 next »



Related Articles
XFX GeForce 9800 GTX Black Edition review
A review on the XFX Black edition GeForce 9800 GTX, after reading some of you guys will probably will run to the store .. as the XFX XXX and Black editions obviously have fallen in price after AMDs Radeon 4850 launch.

XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 Black edition review
King of pre-overclocked products has to be XFX, their speed-bin of releasing OCed products is exceedingly fast. I do not think that there is an XFX product out there that is not available as a triple X edition or other series name slapped on top of it. Today will be no different, we received XFXes top of the shelf product, the GeForce 9800 GX2, the cool thing is that this is the new mystified named 'Black edition' series of cards, meaning it comes with a nice pre-overclock and an lovely game bundle.

XFX GeForce 9600 GT XXX 512MB review
A review on that XXX rated version of the GeForce 9600 GT. Hey, only XFX can implement such a name for you. XFX have a "way" of communication and getting attention. They quite honestly deliver really impressive products. Today's tested product is no different.

XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB Fatal1ty review
The Fata1ty Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB graphics card comes with it's GPU core pre-overclocked at 650 MHz and it's 320 MB memory clocked at (2x) 999 MHz. If that isn't rather radical, the Shader domain inside that graphics processor is clocked at a lovely 1620 MHz. Now if that does mean jack to you, these are the reference specs a 320 model normally has: 500 MHz core, 2x 800 MHz memory and a shader domain clock of 1200 MHz. Can you already sniff the performance increase ? That's like bacon on your eggs man.

© 2019