Review: Gainward BLISS GeForce 8600 GTS GS, 256MB GDDR3
Gainward decided to make an overclocked Geforce 8600 GTS
version. We already told you everything that you should know about the Geforce 8600
GTS.
Lets repeat one more time. Nvidia recomends 675 MHz speed for
the G84 chip and the 128 bit memory works at 2000 MHz. The Shader units at this
chips works at 1.5 GHz shaderclock.
Gainward decided to go for a bit more extreme side. It
overclocked the card to 725 MHz a full 50 MHz faster then the recommended speed,
while the memory works at an incredible 2200 MHz. Of course Gainward can not
overcome the limitations of the 128 bit memory bus, but the card still works well in FSAA and Aniso settings due to its high memory clock. The card comes with 256 MB memory.
G84, Geforce 8600 series are the first sub $200 or €200
DirectX 10 cards to hit the market. The bad news is that even today there are
no DirectX 10 games out, but you should better be prepared. ATI's competition is
still at least one month away and until then Gainward has all the time in the
world to make some DirectX 10 money.
The card itself doesn’t run hot at all. The new innovative
cooler is quiet and it looks good in black. Gainward tweaked the reference
design and made its PCB in red while the dual-slot cooler is black with a big and silent 72mm fan in the middle of the board.
Gainward BLISS GeForce 8600 GTS GS, 256MB GDDR3, 2x DVI, TV-out, PCIe (8460)
What's in the box
The box includes two DVI dongles, S-Video to RGBA cable and
power connector 6 pin PCIe. The card needs
the additional power. You will also find Cyberlink DVD Power 2 go 5.5, power
producer 3.2, power back 2.0 and media show 3.0, a manual and a driver CD.
