NVIDIA’s new 8600 series is interesting in several ways. This is the first mid-range card to fully support DirectX 10 Shader Model 4 in hardware, beating ATI’s R600 mid-range derivatives to the market in a significant way. On the other hand, there are no DirectX 10 games on the market, making it hard to make a recommendation of the new cards based on that feature alone. However, with the proliferation of DirectX 10 games coming in the next few months the need for a DirectX 10 supporting card is there and will result in a better visual experience than the old generation Shader Model 3.0 cards. If you have integrated GMA 9000 graphics on your motherboard and are looking for a card in this price range, the 8600GT is a good buy assuming you want to run the new games which will not run with the same visual fidelity as the DX10 cards.

Having said that, if you have a last-generation mid-range card like the 7950GT or X1950 Pro there really isn’t much of a reason to upgrade to either of the EVGA 8600GT or the XFX 8600GT or even a 8600GTS card (the price points for the 8600GTS/GT are currently too close to call them separate cards with the range from 170-190 for GT and 199-239 for GTS ) in today’s games as they will play Shader Model 3.0 games with ease. The price for a x1950 Pro online is $159.99, the price of a 7950GT is 199.99 making them directly comparable to the 8600GT and 8600GTS in terms of price. The performance increase from such an upgrade is not worth the price at the moment. That’s one problem with the trickle-down of technology from the 79xx and x19xx series high-end to the mid-range. The mid-range latest generation designed cards perform on-par or a little higher with the mid-ranged priced high-end cards of the last generation.

Running the two cards in SLI mode is a bit of a mixed bag. Not every application supports higher performance with SLI mode and this can be seen in the NFS:C scores. I had a bit of an issue with Quake 4 pausing causing inconsistent scores where it should have a performance increase. When SLI is enabled and works with an application (3Dmark, Oblivion, Dark Messiah Might and Magic etc.) it works well, with clearly defined performance increases over a single 8600GTS card.

Between the two, from the performance perspective, the XFX 8600GT is clearly the better performing card, with wins in almost every benchmark. Alleviating this, is the fact that EVGA offers the best support in the form of a Step-Up program and 24/7 Toll-Free Technical Support for the registered users. The EVGA card is available from Newegg for $189.99, putting it within striking distance of the price range of the 8600GTS cards ($199) and even within striking range of the 8800GTS 320MB as that card is available for $270 but offers much greater specifications and performance for the extra $80. The XFX card is available from Newegg for $170, making it a good choice for that price range. I’m giving the XFX 8600GTS a higher score, due to its higher clock speed, better overclocking, and price. EVGA’s card is excellent as well, with the overclocking of the card making it near the reference 8600 GTS speed, but it doesn’t come with the high default clock of the XFX card and is higher priced online, making both cards have a Silver award. NVIDIA set the standard with their 6600GT and 7600GT cards, and by the measure of performance in the mid-range of the new generation being higher than the previous generation’s high-end part, the 8600GTS and 8600GT fail. Today the best bet for price/performance ratio is the 8800GTS 320MB, as it is available online for $269.99 (note I have refrained from including mail-in rebates on all prices as it would make it even more competitive price range wise.

XFX 8600GT XXX Edition Card 1.   Performance-7 2.   Features-10 3.   Compatability-10 4.   Price-8 5.   Availibility-10 6.   Setup-10 7.   Overall Value-9 8.   Ease of Use-10 9.   Support-9 10.  Software-5  Total: 89

EVGA 8600GT Superclocked Card: 1.   Performance-7 2.   Features-10 3.   Compatability-10 4.   Price-7 5.   Availibility-10 6.   Setup-10 7.   Overall Value-8 8.   Ease of Use-10 9.   Support-10 10.  Software56  Total: 87