NVIDIA released three drivers for testing with the 8600 series cards one for Windows XP, one for Windows Vista 32-bit, one for Windows Vista 64-bit. After installing a fresh copy of Windows XP, I installed the motherboard drivers, then the XP Forceware drivers. The 8600GTS and 8600GT come with a new Control Panel, replacing the one that came with the 8800GTX.

The new Control Panel uses nTune to overclock the computer. With two 8600GTs installed I installed the XP drivers NVIDIA provided for the review, the 158.16 Forceware. Note, NVIDIA has launched a new driver with the 8600GTS/GT/8500GT that’s a newer revision, the 158.19 drivers. After installation, the drivers prompted me to enable SLI which I did.