Power Consumption and Conclusions
Another high point for the new BFG 8600 GTS OC2 ThermoIntelligence is that the power consumption over the stock graphics card doesn’t seem to be increasing at all under a full load and only by a couple of watts at idle. The AMD HD 2600 XT is definitely the power leader though, using about 23 watts less power at full load in our tests.
Conclusions
We already knew that the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS GPU was the better performing graphics card when compared to the recently released AMD HD 2600 XT; our first run of benchmarks comparing it to a stock 8600 GTS made that pretty clear.
Performance
The BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 ThermoIntelligence graphics card takes this NVIDIA victory another step further by increasing the performance delta between itself and AMD’s HD 2600 XT card to as much as 75% in Oblivion at 1280×960. And while the dominance of the 8600 GTS over the HD 2600 XT was never in question, the fact that BFG new card is able to outperform the stock card by as much as 23% (also in Oblivion) is just as impressive.
By increasing the clock speeds of the core, shader and memory subsystems on the BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 ThermoIntelligence, BFG was able to produce the fastest mid-range card we have tested that also features the all important DX10 support as well as great HD video performance.
New Cooling
The new ThermoIntelligence series of cards from BFG will feature custom designed cooling solutions for NVIDIA GPU solutions; this initial 8600 GTS card starts off with a new air cooled heatsink-fan with increased surface area and a quieter fan all in a one slot design. The key to all this of course is that with the cooler temperatures it produces, BFG was able to overclock the GPU and memory to higher speeds than they had before while keeping the lifetime warranty on it.
Lower temperatures, higher clocks, quieter fans and the same great support and warranty: what’s not to like about that?
Pricing and Availability
As of this publication date, the BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 ThermoIntelligence was available at Newegg.com at a price of $239 — and the standard BFG 8600 GTS OC card can be found for $20 less. While the difference in clock speed is only 10 MHz between the two models, the new ThermoIntelligence model has a 220 MHz faster memory clock and 116 MHz faster shader clock speed that total up to pretty decent performance difference between them.
The new ThermoIntelligence model hasn’t yet shown up on our Pricegrabber engine, but I am sure it will soon.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the new BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 ThermoIntelligence is a fantastic graphics card for the money, and looks even more appealing when you compare it to the mid-range cards from competitor AMD’s HD 2000 series. The only caveat to this card is that if you look really hard, you can find the 320MB version of the GeForce 8800 GTS for only about $75 more. If your budget permits it, the upgrade might be worth it to you, but if ~$240 is your price ceiling, the BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 ThermoIntelligence graphics looks like one of your best options.
Please join us in this thread of our forums to discuss this review and new product!
