From Shane McGlaun,
Your Guide to Computer Peripherals.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

I have looked at three other graphics cards from the NVIDIA entry level DirectX 10 graphics card line up recently including the EVGA 8600 GT superclocked graphics card that is the direct competitor to the XFX 8600 GT XXX we are reviewing here. If you want to find out how well the XFX 8600 GT XXX performs, or if the EVGA or XFX card is faster read on.

Features & Specifications

All the 8600 GT graphics cards share the same feature set. The XFX 8600 GT XXX does not support HDCP so if you are after a cheap card to run NVIDIA’s new PureVideo HD you need to look elsewhere. XFX still has the best warranty in the business which is a double lifetime affair meaning you and the next owner are covered. XFX is announcing today that the warranty now covers any cause for the XFX 8600 GT XXX to fail so long as the card has no physical damage. Clock speeds for the XFX 8600 GT XXX are 620 MHz on the core and 1.6 Hz on the 256MB of RAM. The card has 32 stream processors that operate at 1355MHz and the memory bus is 128-bit.

Test Machine

The test machine specifications for this review are:

• CPU- Intel QX6700
• Mainboard- EVGA 680i
• RAM- PNY XLR8 PC2-8500 2GB
• Display- HP 30” LP3065
• OS- Windows XP Pro SP2

Benchmarks & Testing

3DMark06

I like to start testing of new video cards with 3DMark06. I used default settings in both the 3DMark06 application and the NVIDIA control panel. Results from the 3DMark06 test are as follows:

• Total 3DMarks- 5357
• SM2.0- 2108
• HDR/SM3.0- 1857
• CPU- 3958
• Return to Proxycon- 16.262
• Firefly Forest- 18.869
• Canyon Flight- 16.300
• Deep Freeze- 20.639
• CPU1- 1.327
• CPU2- 1.888

Let’s compare some 3DMark06 scores for other recent video cards I have tested, the EVGA 8600 GT Superclocked scored 5162 3DMarks and the PNY Verto 8600 GTS scored 5831 3DMarks.

Battlefield 2142

Next up was some BF2142 at a screen resolution of 1600 x 1200, 4x AA and all other settings on high. I used Fraps to record frame rate data while playing a single player map called “Fall of Berlin.” Fraps gave the following frame rate data:

• Min- 25 fps
• Avg- 28.938 fps
• Max- 32 fps

FEAR

FEAR always challenges graphics cards during testing and for the XFX 8600 GT XXX I ran the game at a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024, 4x AA, no soft shadows and all other settings at max levels. Using the FEAR in game test loop the following frame rate data was recorded:

• Min- 20 fps
• Avg- 35 fps
• Max- 72 fps

Percentages tell a clear story of performance in FEAR, 12% of the time frame rates were below 25 fps, 63% of the time frame rates were 25 – 40 fps and 25% of the time frame rates were greater than 40 fps.

Final Thoughts

The XFX 8600 GT XXX is certainly the fastest 8600 GT that I have tested and the only sour note on the XFX 8600 GT XXX is that it does not support HDCP. This is a shame considering the card can support PureVideo HD, but that is moot without HDCP support for Blu-ray and HD DVD playback. Overall, for a budget gaming card for future DirectX 10 titles and current DirectX 9 titles the XFX 8600 GT XXX is a budget contender.