The midrange space is where a GPU company absolutely needs to do well
in. Success here allows it to fully invest in future generations'
architecture.
Thinking about the current state of play, NVIDIA's stolen a march on AMD
by releasing a number of midrange DX10-supporting graphics cards in the
last 2 months.
At the higher end of the midrange line-up sits the GeForce 8600 GTS. XFX
likes it so much that it's created another XXX Edition, offering
faster-than default speeds for a little extra outlay.
Is it worth the £160 asking price or would you be better off paying more
for something with significantly more graphical chomping ability? Read
on to find out.
Card appearance and thoughts
Recapping for those that don't bother reading the introduction, NVIDIA
launched its DX10 midrange line-up just over 2 months ago. The GeForce
8600 GTS' architecture, which was covered here, we concluded, was a natural lopping-off of performance to meet a lower price point. That's just common sense, right?
The time between the introduction of the range-topping GeForce 8800 GTX -
later supplanted by the Ultra variant - and GeForce 8600 GT/GTS, has
allowed NVIDIA to add in a number of extra video-related features. All
GeForce 8600 GTS cards feature HDCP support over two dual-link DVI
outputs, and the GPU's video-processing unit has been upgraded to
provide hardware-accelerated support for the common codecs used in
Blu-ray and HD-DVD titles. The entire H.264 decoding pipeline is
covered, whilst only missing out on the initial - albeit computationally
expensive - entropy stage for VC-1.
On to XFX XXX Edition, now.
The GeForce 8600 GTS series use a split-clock approach, with certain
portions of the GPU clocked in at different speeds. Reference cards
operate at 675/1450/2000MHz for the core, shaders and memory,
respectively.
The XXX Edition, pictured below, is the fastest of XFX's trio of GeForce
8600 GTS cards. Our sample was clocked in at 730/1566/2260MHz,
representing healthy boosts in speeds over the default version. We must
note, however, that XFX's site lists the XXX Edition at 730/1595/2260.
XFX has chosen speed-binned parts for its XXX range, capable of running
at higher than stock speeds without the need for esoteric cooling.
That's why the card looks much like any other GeForce 8600 GTS'.
The fan is a little noisy under load, just like other 8600 GTS', as well.
It's interesting to note that all GeForce 8600 GTS cards ship with a
6-pin PCIe connector that provides extra power above the ~75W provided
by the x16 PCIe slot. The lower-clocked GeForce 8600 GT XXX does without.
As per our discussion of the GPU, both DVI ports provide HDCP protection
over dual-link outputs. Put simply, you can run a pair of ultra-high
resolution monitors and still play high-definition content in all its
glory.
The XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX is capable of running in multi-GPU SLI
mode. All you need to do is have an SLI-certified motherboard, invest in
another card, and hook them up via the 'golden finger' conduit on the
top-right.
Summary
HEXUS has previously looked at a couple of NVIDIAGeForce
8600 GTS cards and both have been shipped pre-overclocked. It makes
implicit sense that XFX - purveyors of multiple overclocked SKUs - would
have an XXX Edition. Its clocks are the fastest of any 8600 GTS we've
seen thus far so it should benchmark well.
The real question that requires answering, we suppose, is whether it's worth it? Keep reading and we'll tell you.
