Foxconn 8600GTS-256 OC 700/2200 Videocard Review

[One4yu2c]

The industry's abuzz about DirectX10, with nVidia's 8800GTX and Ultra videocards hogging all the attention. But not everyone has the purse for high end extravagances, so does that mean they'll be left DX10 wanting? Not if Foxconn, and their mid-range 8600GTS, have anything to say about it. Follow along as we see if a modestly spec'd DX10 card has enough muscle to handle today's games.
Paul Lilly

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[Jokerswild]

Good article Paul. I was hoping the 8600GTS would be better bang for the buck but i guess not.

[One4yu2c]

The card actually fared better than I was expecting, but I'd like to see about $50 knocked off the street price. As it stands, it's competing against faster DX9 cards, including those by ATI (X1950Pro), and nVidia really had a chance to cold clock the competition had they either gave it more Steam Processors, made it 256-bit, or both.

[Jokerswild]

Yea the 128 bit is a bummer but ATI isn't any better with their cards. I was hoping the 8600"s would be more like the 6600's and 7600's were as far as performance for $ since I want to go DX10 but since there's nothing out DX10 wise right now maybe there will be some changes once the games start coming out.

[Mithosphere]

Originally Posted by One4yu2c

The card actually fared better than I was expecting, but I'd like to see about $50 knocked off the street price. As it stands, it's competing against faster DX9 cards, including those by ATI (X1950Pro), and nVidia really had a chance to cold clock the competition had they either gave it more Steam Processors, made it 256-bit, or both.

Have you seen the ECS 8600GTS? It's clocked a bit higher and its only 120 bucks!

[Computer-Ed]

I was really hoping that the 8600 GTS and the HD2600 would deliver DX9 performance in the X1950Pro range. That would have made them awesome cards. As it stands however with the current crop of games and even the DX10 games not really showing anything worth using DX10, the X1950Pro remains a SERIOUS choice for a budget based gaming card.

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by Mithosphere

Have you seen the ECS 8600GTS? It's clocked a bit higher and its only 120 bucks!

I'd be more excited over the minor clockspeed boost if it was worth anything more than marketing fodder. The price, however, is more in line with what I'd value the card at, but it doesn't look like they're selling them anymore. :/

[Stormcrow]

The whole G84 line is a disappointment, nVidia designed it to drop into the same PCB layout as the 6600 of 3 years ago. 32 unified shaders, 128-bit interface, 16 texture units and 8 rasters, thats something the majority of us were expecting with the 8500. Even with its RAM cranked up as high as it is, the 8600 is still thrashed by the 7900GS and 1950pro, which can be had for around $125-130 now.
From a marketing standpoint, nVidia should have went ahead with the GTS as it was supposed to be, 64 shaders and a 256 bit interface, and released it for $225-250 instead of halving the memory of the 8800GTS and dropping the price. In the end however, we have a huge gap in performance to price, with those being able to come up with 300 bills in range for the high end bang for buck, and those stuck with a budget getting not even a third of the performance for $150-200. And the HD 2600 is no better.