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The Verdict

Alright then, so the GeForce 8600 GT and GTS. They're a little difficult to position aren't they? NVIDIA delivers a silicon that is just loaded with features and abilities. I love how Purevideo HD is still evolving, and I like how well NVIDIA's approach to Image Quality has changed. However, the first GeForce 8600 GTS I popped into our test system returned results that did not satisfy me. The first test was done with a 101.95 Forceware driver. When I reported this back towards NVIDIA within a week a new driver was released to the press, that being build 158.14 for XP and 158.16 for Vista. That's quite a large build difference isn't it ?

Now I do not know what happened but quite a number of bugs had been squashed for sure. Vista however for me remains a drama. When I wanted to test the new Purevideo HD engine in combo with a new NVIDIA supplied WinDVD the system crashed once again so darn hard that after repairing Vista with the DVD I had to activate my windows again by phone with Microsoft. For now I have booted Windows Vista and will remain testing on XP until an actual stable driver is released. Yes, driver issues. Ironically since the new PureVideoHD is not ready in the driver for XP I could not test it. I'll leave the topic NVIDIA ForceWare drivers as it is for now, but NVIDIA definitely needs to get the drivers up-to par and release a driver on a monthly basis !!

Back to XP gaming. In all fairness the 158.14 driver offered an instant 10-15% overall improvement in performance compared to that 101.95 driver. That's nice but thing is, and this really is my biggest issue with GeForce 8600 series, the overall performance is still lacking a little. I think everybody expected the 8600 series to perform better in games. The GT is merely 15% faster than a 7600 GT in most scenarios; with the GTS performing at roughly 7900 GS or Radeon X1950 Pro performance. A Radeon X1950 Pro or 7900 GS for example will outperform the GTS in many scenarios and is a good amount cheaper. I can pick either one of them up here in the Netherlands for 150 EUR. Sure, these cards are not DX10 compatible but I think you'll see a lot of reviews today with exactly the same sentiment. Yours truly expected more performance. The 32 Shader cores and the choice of 128-bit memory are the responsible key issues here, and NVIDIA knows this. This is why the clock frequencies on the cards are so high.

Another relevant factor is this: What you also need to understand is that NVIDIA for whatever reason is no longer sending out reference samples. This means virtually there's no real basis of comparison which is a bad thing. Every single manufacturer out there has sent out their fastest available product. Get this: all boards submitted to us are overclocked editions with different clock frequencies on core/memory and shaders. And while that's good fun they will also be more expensive. In the stores what will be selling for probably 90% of the cards are the standard reference clocked cards and their performance will be lower. I'm extremely curious how a DX10 title like Crysis will perform on cards like these, and while DX10 performance might be a tad better I do not predict anything good.

The price point of the GTS then. It's in a 200 to 230 USD price range and the faster clocked version will likely be slightly more expensive. Guys for 275 USD you can pick up a 8800 GTS 320 MB effectively doubling your performance easily. So that makes this conclusion something for you guys to think about as personally I would not buy the 8600 GTS but would simply go for the 8800 GTS 320MB. With this years DX10 titles you'll need the raw horsepower for sure.

I think a more successful product would be a 150 USD GeForce 8600 GT with 256MB memory. If it can be clocked slightly faster and manufacturers offer it with faster memory you can bring it up-to GTS speeds, and for that kind of money that definitely offers more bang for your bucks. The big downside for the GT tweaking wise however is power ... e.g. current .. once you can overclock it .. the PCI-Express bus on your mainboard can deliver only 75 Watts, yes remember .. the GT cards lack the 6-pin power connector which is really needed for a massive overclock.

So to sum up my overall impression: The 8600 GT/GTS cards is definitely a fun product series, but it does not have the impact as for example the 7600 GT had when it was released. In fact if you have a 7600 GT or 7900 GS graphics card there really is no huge need to upgrade unless you really want to switch to a DX10 class graphics card. And from that perspective, that's not what people expected.

Back to the product itself. Interesting was the fact that in the last 10 hours prior to the review I had a peek at the third clock within the GPU; the mysteriously clocked Shader domain. These are the "stream processors" responsible for all that pixel madness on your screen. Now this is interesting; depending on the actual core-clock the shader clock frequency will vary a little here and there but... think again. You'll gain a lot by increasing the clock frequency of the shader domain independantly from the rest of the clocks (isolated) and some manufacturers had the balls to take advantage of that. Have a look at my findings which have been verified with the latest non-public Rivatuner Beta release:

Take a good look at that shader clocks from Galaxy and XFX, they've hit the magic spot and know where the free honey can be found. That's why for their GTS models the performance is slightly above the rest.

Enough about architecture and specs. Let's run down the manufacturers. Now I'm not going to give you recommendations on what to buy and who's best. Budget, choices... it's all very personal. The one thing I can say though is that all cards here perform really closely in the same range. Meaning you should look at stuff like bundle, warranty, aesthetics, coolers and obviously your budget.

So, performance overall all cards were pretty close to each other. The fastest clocked versions will be slightly more expensive yet offer a couple of frames per second extra as well. It's the choice you make in your budget. Point of View surprised me with their version, it performed really well thanks to the Exo overclock. BFG is once again doing their classic routine and offering a slightly overclocked product, but also offering a warranty that's just breathtaking. Galaxy, they always surprise me. At the deadline they come up with two boards, their own design with custom cooling and in the future that Smartpanel gadget. They never cease to amaze me. How can you go wrong with that ? And then XFX, both products at launch date available are standard and the XXX editions as tested today, and they both kick ass for sure. I love GT with the black PCB and colored UV connectors. XFX has cool written all over it. Overall performance is just great compared to the other competitors.

Awards time !

For best performance we grant Galaxy, Point of View (GTS Exo) and XFX (GT & GTS XXX) a best hardware award. Excellent cards. The last two the fastest of the bunch. Both XFX and POV manufacturers have great warranty and the GTS cards even have a great game title included in the bundle and the XFX 8600 GT is customized with black PCB & UV reflective DVI connector. It's a cool dude for sure ! Galaxy made their own PCB, blue is lovely but I wish they'd go for a black PCB though. The cards look and clock just great and have customization. The cool factor definitely kicks in and once SmartPanel is finalized it's going to bring a heck of a lot additional value to the cards. Very nice!

BFG I would like to award a well deserved Editor's choice. Is a very lovely product, the overclock on this OC model however is a little on the shy side. What they always do so great though is that warranty; it makes up for the shy overlock bigtime and very often they kick arse on the prices ! So really you can't go wrong with that now can you ? So yes, the manufacturers all offer extremely competitive products, and it will not make your choice in choosing the right graphics card any easier. But on a very positive note isn't it great to have that much choice ?

So in short, both the 8600 GT and GTS are "okay" performers. The one thing that needs to happen for the mainstream user to really accept it is simple. Prices will need to go down. Imagine that GTS at a 150 USD price point. I honestly would have written this article like a wild puppy sniffing it's first bitch in heat! But that's just not the case.

My personal thanks go out to all the board partners who helped make this article happen.

BFG technology - bfgtech.com
Galaxy Technology - galaxytech.com
Point of View- pointofview-online.com 
XFX Technology - xfxforce.com

Unfortunately it was to late for Sparkle and eVGA to get their samples here, but expect reviews on their products soon.
Cheers mates,

Hilbert.