“With the release of the GeForce 8600GTS/GT and 8500GT, NVIDIA can say they have a complete lineup of DirectX 10 solutions from top to bottom. The GeForce 8600 series is particularly interesting, since it’s basically the only series with two SKUs (on the lower end) – the premium GTS and more affordable GT. However, reviews are not all roses for these series. If performance is slower with AA, why bother with the GeForce 8600 series at all? Well, the GeForce 8600 series shares much of the characteristics that can be found on the GeForce 8800 series – pretty good shader performance, angle independent anisotropic filtering and of course, DirectX 10 support.”Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
- XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition – hardcore and expensive! @ HEXUS
- Inno3D iChiLL 8600 GTS XStriker3 @ HEXUS
- ZEROtherm GX815 VGA Cooler @ DH
- Foxconn 8600 GT Overclocked Graphics Card @ I4U
- XFX GeForce 8600GT Fatal1ty Professional Series @ DH
- MSI NX8500GT-TD256E Geforce 8500GT Videocard Review @ PCSTATS
- NVIDIA Graphics: Linux v. Solaris @ Phoronix
- ASUS 2900 XT and 8800 Ultra Compared @ Tweaktown
- ATI Catalyst 7.6 Performance Analysis @ TweakTown
nVIDIA’s DX10 spread
The 8000 series has been expanded to cover just about every price point, from under $100 to over $1000, and all are DX10 cards. Over at Tech-Hounds, the low to mid range 8600 GT and GTS are up for review with their older brother, the 7950GT for comparison as well as a X1950 Pro. It turns out that if raw speed is all you are interested in, maybe a lower priced DX10 card isn’t what you are looking for.