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GeForce 8500 & 8600 - Reference Specifications

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

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 a very shallow 16 on the 8500. Now since we are looking at the 8600 cards 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 eVGA.

eVGA has the regular version of the Geforce 8600 GT available... yet also a faster clocked model of the card. The superclocked edition. eVGA products are well known and reputable in the USA, they are now slowly getting some grip in the complex European market channel as well. This is why you see more and more reviews from eVGA on Guru3D.com

Granted to date we have tested very few of their products (but that's going to change) but they have been reviewed on occasion and in our discussion forums you'll notice that only a handful of companies constantly is receiving attention and credit, eVGA is such a company as they offer excellent after-sales support.

Included in the box you'll find:

• GeForce 8600 GT 256 MB
• Driver CD
• HDTV block (3-way RCA component)
• 6-pin to Molex power cable
• manual
• VGA->DVI dongle x2

Obviously while this card is also a reference based product, but since it's the OC model it is pre-tested at quality control; and now has a guaranteed higher clock frequency. Basically they'll try-out and burn-in the card. And if it survives a stress test within the given specifications it'll be rated higher.

Such clocks for a reference product are 540 MHz on the core, 700 MHz for the memory and 1180 MHz on the Shader domain in the GPU. The eVGA eGeForce 8600 GT Superclocked edition has a 576 MHz core, 756 MHz memory and 1296 MHz shader clocked shader domain. So that's definitely a tad better over the reference clocks, albeit a little shy compared to other vendors clocks.

As usual eVGA offers you a lifetime-warranty on their graphics cards if you life in the USA or Canada that is. Here in Europe we have strict EU legislation which restricts your warranty towards 10 years maximum; which is still a lot.

Please keep in mind that the lifetime warranty is only valid if you register your card with at EVGAs website, evga.com. If you dont register the card, warranty coverage is limited to 1-year.

One of the best things about buying an eVGA product is the ability to trade in your product and buy a better one. The last thing we have to mention here is something that is just really lovely. eVGA's Step Up upgrade program.

With the Step Up program you are allowed to trade in your eVGA graphics card for a faster EVGA model under the one condition that you upgrade within 90 days of the original card purchase. Youll get the full value of your original card, so if you paid $150 for your old card and you want to upgrade to a $250 card, you merely pay the difference of $100. It's as simple as that. We often read about nasty stories in our forums from people that just invested money in a new card only to find out that four weeks later a new generation product was introduced... which quite frankly that user really wanted to have. So now you can. You can only use Step Up once though.