XFX 8600GTS & 8600GT XXX Editions!

Power Consumption & Temps

Just out of curiosity I took total system power consumption figures with all of these cards, first after three minutes of windows sitting idle, and then again after three minutes of load with Orthos and ATI Tool open and running to fully load the system.

Interesting to note is that the reference 7800GT consumes the most power other than the 8800GTS. General system specs are again on the Test Setup page.

These cards to run fairly "warm" in my personal opinion, but the blame can be laid on the small and silent coolers. I don't know about other manufacturers, but XFX seems to have taken its customer's feedback to heart and designed both of these cards to run totally silent. I should note that the 8600GTS requires the installed driver to regulate it's own fan though, and therefore will be the usual leafblower when in DOS or the BIOS screens. Median room temp during tests fell within 22.2c.

CONCLUSION

While these scores may come as a surprise to some computer enthusiasts, they really shouldn’t be. The XFX 8600GTS “XXX” Edition completely outperforms its actual predecessor, namely the 7600GT, even though it is still limited by the same 128-bit wide bus.

Additionally it should be noted the particular 7950GT used in this review does offer 512mb of onboard RAM, however if was limited to 256mb of RAM like some 7950GT cards it would not be dominating the charts as well as it is. Especially for 1600x1200 resolution and higher most games can now take good advantage of 512mb of RAM, and it will be needed for Ant-aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering modes. While 512mb 8600 cards are probably only a matter of time, due to the 128-bit wide bus I am simply not sure if they will offer any performance improvements worth their increase in price.

Also I would be remiss to not state that these cards are designed for DX10 under Windows Vista. We already know that DirectX 10 will be a much, much more efficient API than DirectX 9c could ever hope to become, and it is possible that with the drastically reduced overhead the 128-bit memory bottleneck and 256mb memory may become less of an issue. We can only wait and see how things will be once DX10 finally arrives.

The XFX 8600GTS “XXX” Edition (PV-T84G-UDD)

This card is definitely no slouch when it comes to performance, even if it doesn’t quite live up to the hype that predated its launch. The power consumption, card size, and silent self-regulated fan are all plusses on this card, and I certainly can’t forget XFX’s excellent Double-Lifetime warranty and customer support here either.

By long and far however, the biggest drawback to this otherwise great card is simply, price. Why would anyone pay $249 for this card when for just $10 more they can buy a 8800GTS 320mb (Also with lifetime warranty)? Power consumption aside, you cannot argue with double the performance in almost every benchmark, which infact makes the power consumption fairly efficient if judging by performance per watt. The latest prices show this card to be selling for $239, which is still only $20 less than a full 8800GTS 320mb even if this card comes with Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter bundled in.

All of that said, this card is by long and far the highest overclocked 8600GTS available with a warranty to back it up, as far as I know 2,260mhz DDR3 RAM is unprecedented on a graphics card, and the core is a respectable 730mhz. as well. So while it may not be the most sensible card to buy, it’ll be the best performing 8600GTS out there! 

Pros:

Cons:

-  Price
-  Not a sensible buy ($20 more for an 8800GTS?)

Final Score: 6.5 (Pretty Good) out of 10. 

The XFX 8600GT “XXX” Edition (PV-T84J-UDD)

While there is no bundled game with this card and it does not require a power connecter it amazingly offers close performance to that of its bigger brother the GTS. Oh and did I mention it does so at a much more palatable price, currently $169 shipped (At launch day) from some online retailers for this exact “XXX” Edition model.

Gamers wishing to play 1600x1200 and higher resolutions will likely have to forgo simply putting all game settings at there maximums in order to avoid lag, but hey, it’s a midrange card. I can honestly recommend this card to be on anyone’s shortlist to anyone who is building a computer that lacks a card already. If considering upgrading for DirectX 10 and SM4 support however, then unless using an 7600GS or x1600Pro or lower you will not be receiving much to any performance improvement.

When all is said and done this card can offer close to the performance of a full 8600GTS at much less the price. Infact this specific XFX “XXX” Edition 8600GT is the cheapest 8600GT listed right now, despite also being the highest factory overclocked model. Despite the tiny cooler it runs silent and offers a Double-Lifetime warranty, as usual for XFX, which is a good thing due to the memory not receiving cooling from the fansink. 

Until prices on the 8600GTS drop to more reasonable levels, the XFX 8600GT “XXX” edition is the current best buy… if considering any of the near $200 or higher 8600GTS models then you would be far better off simply purchasing a $259 8800GTS instead for double (even triple) the performance.

Pros:

Final Score: 8.5 (Excellent) out of 10. 

UPDATE: 

It has been brought to my attention that XFX has just now changed their North American Double-Lifetime warranty policy. XFX is now very proud to support the requests of the overclocking and modding community, and has announced overclocking and aftermarket cooling will no longer void the excellent XFX Double-Lifetime warranty! For further details please click here.

Word of Thanks

I’d like to personally extend my appreciation to XFX for sending in both of their absolute best XXX Edition 8600 cards in for review. Without companies like them willing to take the risk, time, and cost to send in products for review, sites like Bjorn3d wouldn’t be nearly where they are at today!