- Introduction
Asus continuing its tradition of releasing "overclocked" products, has released a Nvidia 8600GTS with higher clock speeds, aiming for the highest possible performance a user can get in this category. In this review, we will examine what you can expect from the Asus EN8600GTS Top, with both synthetic tests and real-life gaming experience. More-over, we add several new DirectX 10 games, since the 8600 series supports the upcoming titles that promise to rock your gaming world.
NVIDIA's Unified Architecture GeForce 8 Series GPUs - First to Support Microsoft DirectX 10 Games and Applications.
NVIDIA® GeForce® 8 series graphics processing units (GPUs) redefine the PC gaming experience. With a revolutionary unified architecture and full support for Microsoft® DirectX® 10 games, GeForce 8 series GPUs deliver unprecedented performance, extraordinarily detailed environments, and film quality game effects.
Below is a table that illustrates the main differences between the various GeForce 8 series GPUs:
| |
GeForce
8800 Ultra |
GeForce
8800 GTX |
GeForce
8800 GTS |
GeForce
8600 GTS |
GeForce
8600 GT |
GeForce
8500 GT |
GeForce
8400 GS |
| Core Clock (MHz) |
612 |
575 |
500 |
675 |
540 |
450 |
450 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) |
1500 |
1350 |
1200 |
1450 |
1190 |
900 |
900 |
| Memory Clock (MHz) |
1080 |
900 |
800 |
1000 |
700 |
400 |
400 |
| Memory Amount |
768MB |
768MB |
640MB or
320MB |
256MB |
256MB |
256MB |
256MB |
| Memory Interface |
384-bit |
384-bit |
320-bit |
128-bit |
128-bit |
128-bit |
64-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) |
103.7 |
86.4 |
64 |
32 |
22.4 |
12.8 |
6.4 |
| Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec) |
39.2 |
36.8 |
24 |
10.8 |
8.64 |
3.6 |
3.6 |
The GeForce 8600 GT and 8600 GTS are essentially the same product, with the only difference being the core and memory clock frequencies.
- Asus EN8600GTS Top
The ASUS Extreme N8600GTS TOP features 256MB of memory, a core clock of 745MHz and a memory frequency of 2.29GHz. That's almost 10% higher core and 14.5% higher memory frequencies compared with the "generic" 8600GTS cards.
The retail package clearly shows off the faster performance users can expect from their EN8600GTS Top. The card is available at the retail price of €250Euro (+ shipping):
The contents are carefully packaged:
There are no retail games included, only two discs with drivers and utilities.
The card is normal length, and reminds us of the Nvidia 7900GS series. The cooling system is made out of copper and covers both the GPU core and memory banks. At full load, the fan is a little noisy:
The card offers two (x2) DVI-D and one TV-out outputs. HDCP is supported and you can output HD content to your TV or monitor.
SLI is available on the EN8600GTS Top card:
6pin PCI-E power is needed for the card to work properly.
- Full specification
Graphics Engine |
GeForce™ 8600GTS |
Video Memory |
256MB GDDR3 |
Engine Clock |
745MHz |
Memory Clock |
2.290GHz (2x1145MHz DDR3) |
Memory Interface |
256-bit |
Max Resolution |
2048 X 1536 |
Bus Standard |
PCI Express x16 |
HDTV Output |
Yes, S-Video to HDTV Out |
VGA Output |
Yes, With DVI-VGA adaptor |
TV Output |
Yes, S-Video to Composite |
Dual DVI Output |
Yes |
Adapter/Cable Bundled |
DVI to VGA adapter
HDTV-OUT adaptor
Power Cable |
Software Bundled |
ASUS Utilities & Driver |
