Review: XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition - hardcore or not? - Graphics - HEXUS.net

Final thoughts, HEXUS awards, HEXUS where2buy, and HEXUS.right2reply

Starting from the GPU design, the DX10-toting GeForce 8600 GT is a comfortable step ahead of its immediate predecessor, the GeForce 7600GT. A unified shading architecture, tighter quality specification as a result of adherence to the latest Microsoft API, and potential performance weapons such as the introduction of a geometry shader, make it an attractive GPU for those looking to future-proof themselves as much as one can in the midrange space.

XFX has gone about its usual business and released both stock-clocked and overclocked models, and the latter - the XXX edition - increases key performance parameter speeds by around 15 per cent. Such clock increases are, however, manifested in a 30 per cent higher street price than reference-clocked models and, as such, priced at £110 or so, puts it in direct performance competition with AMD's Radeon X1950 Pro and NVIDIA's own GeForce 7900 GS, and both prove to be faster in our tests.

Looking ahead, the real proof of the performance pudding will present itself when the tables are turned, when DX10 titles become pervasive and DX9 cards attempt to match shader model 4.0's graphical pomp with, we expect, slower-performing codepaths.

We'd also urge all GPU partners to include HDCP support on their midrange SKUs. It seems silly that £100+ DX10 cards should be bereft of what is increasingly becoming a key, key selling point.

Good technology, which is exactly what GeForce 8600 GT is, needs to be married to an attractive street price for it to be recommended; that's just common sense, so whilst we applaud XFX for launching a significantly overclocked model, our gut feeling is that it needs to priced sub-£100 to woo potential customers away from older, but ultimately faster, technology.

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XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition

HEXUS Where2Buy

You can currently purchase this card for around £110 here

HEXUS Right2Reply

XFX furnished HEXUS with a right2reply and we publish it verbatim.

"XFX has gone about its usual business and released both stock-clocked and overclocked models, and the latter - the XXX edition - increases key performance parameter speeds by around 15 per cent. Such clock increases are, however, manifested in a 30 per cent higher street price than reference-clocked models and, as such, priced at £110 or so, puts it in direct performance competition with AMD's Radeon X1950 Pro and NVIDIA's own GeForce 7900 GS, and both prove to be faster in our tests"

XFX's response: X1950 pro is no comparison as not DX10 compatible. You can now download Lost planet Demo from NVIDIA’s Nzone, available in June. http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_lostplanet_downloads.html" . we note the performance of our 7900GS is better but not DX10 compatible.

"The bundle is the definition of sparse. £110 is a decidedly midrange price and we would expect the XXX Edition, in particular, to ship with a more comprehensive bundle. A second DVI-to-VGA dongle wouldn't have gone amiss, and an overclocking utility would have made for a sensible inclusion."

XFX's response:This is a high def digital card therefore we would not supply more than 1 DVI to VGA.

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HEXUS Forums :: 2 Comments

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Posted by deleted - Thu 17 May 2007 16:15

X1950 pro is no comparison as not DX10 compatible.

To be honest, XFX, nobody cares. There are no DX10 games out, and when Crysis and Unreal 3 do come out, who wants to play them at 5fps on the DX10 codepath because they paid over-the-odds for a mediocre card six months before any DX10 games were available?

Posted by deleted - Fri 18 May 2007 00:33

lol was that really verbatim? Sounds like a fairly curt response…

I dunno why they can't be a bit more sensible with their replies. No mention of HDCP? I think they are right about the adaptors, but they should have expressed it a bit more nicely.

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