By: Sarju Shah - Posted on Monday, Apr. 17, 2007

Nvidia jumped the gun on Windows Vista and DirectX10 when it launched the high-priced and equally high-performance GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS graphics processing units last year. While the ATI/AMD complex has yet to release a single DirectX 10 product, Nvidia pushes into budget territory with a trio of cards in the sub-$200 range. The GeForce 8600 GTS leads the pack, while the GeForce 8600 GT and GeForce 8500 GT follow behind. Expect to find all of the cards available in stores and online on April 17.

The GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB comes with 32 stream processors, one-third of the 96 processor GeForce 8800 GTS, and one-quarter of the flagship 128 processor 8800 GTX. Stock GeForce 8600 GTS cards have a 675MHz core clock paired with a 1.45GHz shader clock, and 256MB of GDDR3 memory at an effective speed of 2.0GHz. The value-oriented GeForce 8600 GT has the same engine as the GeForce 8600 GTS; however, Nvidia reduced the core and shader speeds to 540MHz and 1.19GHz, respectively. The company also throttled the memory back to an effective speed of 1.4GHz.

In comparison to the 8600s, Nvidia trimmed the budget-oriented GeForce 8500 GT down to 16 stream processors and reduced the clock speeds even further. The 8500 GT gets to muck about with a 450MHz core and 900MHz shader clock paired with downright anemic 800MHz memory.

	PNY GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB	GeForce 8600 GT 256MB	GeForce 8500 GT
Price Range	$199-229	$149-159	$89-129
DirectX	DirectX 10, SM4	DirectX 10, SM4	DirectX 10, SM4
Core Speed	675MHz	540MHz	450MHz
Stream Processors	32	32	16
Shader Speed	1.45GHz	1.19GHz	900MHz
Memory	256MB	256MB	256-512MB
Memory Speed	1000MHz (2.0GHz GDDR3)	700MHz (1.4GHz GDDR3)	400MHz (800MHz GDDR3)
Memory Interface	128-bit	128-bit	128-bit

The GeForce 8600 GTS and its budget brethren have the same core improvements as other 8800-based GPUs. You'll get a unified shader architecture, full DirectX 10 compatibility, and support for concurrent high-dynamic range lighting with antialiasing. In addition, the cards receive an extra dose of video-processing capabilities. The 8600 and 8500 series of GPUs accelerate and improve image quality for H.264 and VC-1 high-definition video content. Improvements to the graphical core allow the GPUs to reduce CPU usage for video playback considerably.

We tested the PNY GeForce 8600 GTS and the GeForce 8600 GT against a host of competitors; however, the GeForce 8500 GT did not arrive in time for testing.

More Performance

System Setup: Intel Core 2 X6800, Intel 975XBX2, 2GB Corsair Dominator CM2X1024 Memory (1GB x 2), 160GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows XP SP2. Graphics Cards: PNY GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB, GeForce 8600 GT 256MB, GeForce 7900 GS 256MB, GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB, GeForce 7600 GT 256MB, Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB, Radeon X1900 XT 256MB, Radeon X1650 XT 256MB. Graphics Driver: Catalyst 7.3, Forceware 93.71, Forceware 97.94(GeForce 8800 GTS), Forceware 158.16(GeForce 8600s).

Conclusion

The GeForce 8600 GTS and the GeForce 8600 GT wowed and disappointed us at the same time. Performance in shader intensive games like Oblivion was impressive; however neither of the cards offers performance gains over what you can already purchase in the sub-$200 category. More often than not, the 8600s lag behind the GeForce 7900 GS, the Radeon X1950 Pro, and especially the Radeon X1900 XT. The allure of DirectX 10 support might count for something, but we're not prepared to give Nvidia credit until we see how these cards actually perform with DirectX 10 games. For the moment, we'd pass on the GeForce 8600 GTS and the GeForce 8600 GT in favor of similarly priced higher-performance DirectX 9 cards. If you’re willing to spend a little more, the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB provides vastly superior performance.