nVidia 8600 GT - Testing pt.2
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F.E.A.R.
Lots can be said about this game. I have played through it twice and it still scares me every time I play it. From a computer perspective, this is a very intense game. The game has great physics and the best lighting I have seen in a game. This game put down a crunch on my previous computer.
On average we saw a 4 FPS increase with the overclocked card. This could help out at higher resolutions and would make the overclocked version worthwhile to get over the reference version. I was actually surprised that this much of a difference would be made by the slightly higher clock speeds.
Call of Juarez
This game probably isn't known as well as the other games. So why would I consider this game? It has the next generation programming in it. It runs on DX10, so our 8600 GT should do a lot better than non-DX10 cards. This game also uses Shader Model 4.0. This will be the future of gaming and gives the game stunning graphics. It is a very demanding game for all computers, so this test should really show where this card stacks up against the rest.
This game is not for the budget computers. These tests were run at the lowest settings that the benchmark allowed. The 8600 GT is a mid-range card, and struggles to keep up with this game. The difference between the reference clocks and the overclock yields an extra 2 FPS. While this isn't a lot, and the game still is on the non-playable level, if you were to overclock this card some more I feel confident that it could make some serious difference in FPS. Do I think it could handle the game full out? Not a chance. Could it handle it at the bench marked settings? Possibly.
Conclusion
The 8600 GT is a very capable card. It is a really nice bang for the buck for the mid level card. The MSI NX8600 GT is a great card to get if you're in the market for a new graphics card. The perk over any of the reference cards is that it has higher stock clocks. These small gains might not account for much, but there is some small increase. If this card and a reference clocked card cost the same, why not get this one?
The 8000 series from nVidia was the first to support DX 10. This will offer big perks in the future over previous generation cards. The card has a nice cooler that should allow the core to run a lot cooler than the stock cooler. Remarkably this card doesn't require any additional power, which is a real perk for people that are going for an energy efficient computer.
What makes this a solid buy to me is the fact that this card costs roughly the same as any other 8600 GT and you get the additional perk of having it clocked slightly higher than its counterparts. For this reason I feel that the MSI NX8600 GT deserves a 9 out of 10 and is awarded the DevHardware Gold Award. I would like to thank you for reading the review and if you have any questions feel free to stop by our forums.
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