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- Date:
- Monday , August 13, 2007
- Author:
- Mark Warner
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
Gigabyte's Silent GeForce 8600 GT and 8600 GTS
We have two brand new Gigabyte passively cooled silent video cards to evaluate today. The Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GT features Silent-Pipe II technology and the Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GTS features Silent-Pipe III. The question for enthusiasts out there is which is the better value for gaming and how high do they overclock?
Gigabyte GV-NX86S256H GeForce 8600 GTS Silent
The Gigabyte GV-NX86S256H is not your standard fare NVIDIA reference PCB design at all. Gigabyte has re-designed the video card to do without an auxiliary PCI-Express connector. This departs from all other GeForce 8600 GTS based video cards which do require external power. One reason this may be is due to the fact that this video card lacks a fan, since it is a fully passive cooling design. In any case this should benefit those with power constraints. The GPU is clocked at 675 MHz, and the memory is clocked to 2 GHz, in-line with NVIDIA's reference specifications for the frequencies.
The Gigabyte GV-NX86S256H features Gigabyte’s new Silent-Pipe III technology completely re-designing the cooling apparatus compared to Silent-Pipe II. The basic principal that Gigabyte is trying to achieve with Silent-Pipe III is quoted:
Similar to the principle of turbulence in fluid dynamics, Silent-Pipe 3™ introduces Inner Turbulence Fluid Mechanics Design. Utilizing a series of layered long and short fins with trapezoid punches, Silent-Pipe 3™ transforms laminar (smooth) air flow into turbulent (rough) air flow inside the heat sink, increasing the heat exchange ratio and enhancing overall thermal performance.
A detailed visual can be viewed here. As you will notice this design does take up the space of two slots on your motherboard and does have a part that sticks out the back of your case open to the air; pictures are below. Currently this is the only video card from Gigabyte to use Silent-Pipe III technology.
The front of this video card's box is almost identical to the Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GT Silent's box, except that it says "GeForce 8600 GTS" instead of "GeForce 8600 GT", and there is a sticker indicating the inclusion of the Gigabyte Silent-Pipe III system on this video card.
The video card is almost completely covered by the massive Silent-Pipe III cooling system. Even the taller power regulation circuitry is covered by the cooler on this video card. There is a small, plastic "Silent-Pipe III" branding label on the heat-sink, which is a light titanium-gray color. On the top edge, you can see the two copper heat pipes. As with the GeForce 8600 GT Silent, Gigabyte included small blue caps for all of the connectors on this video card.
The backside of this video card is similar to that of its smaller sibling. There is little of interest, save some stickers and small surface mounted devices. In fact, based on the pattern of the lines of conductors and the placement of the backside components, it appears to us that these two video cards are built upon a similar PCB.
The IO bracket provides a pair of dual-link DVI-I ports and an HDTV output jack with HDCP and Windows Vista support. The label, again very similar to the Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GT Silent, it located on the front side of the PCB, above the PCI-Express slot contacts and below the heat-sink. Unlike its little brother, the label is silkscreen printed on this PCB, rather than printed on a sticker.
The bundle that is packaged with the Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GTS Silent is exactly the same as that packaged with the GeForce 8600 GT Silent. There is a full-version DVD of Supreme Commander, a driver and manual CD, two dual-link DVI to VGA adaptors, and an HDTV output dongle.
The Silent-Pipe III system is considerably different than the Silent-Pipe II. There are two distinct sections of the heat-sink, and there are actually two visible heat-pipes. The first and largest part is the cast aluminum heat-sink that sits on top of the GPU and memory. From below that section come two copper heat pipes that attach to the smaller heat-sink, which actually protrudes out of the back of the IO retention bracket by about 3/4 of an inch. According to Gigabyte's diagram, air will flow through the smaller heat-sink first on its way into the case via the vents in the IO bracket through which the smaller heat-sink protrudes. It will then pass over the larger heat sink and rise to be blown out of the case by the case's exhaust fans. Of course, to achieve these results, your case will need good airflow in order to draw air, un-aided, through the closely packed fins.
At first glance, the device looks somewhat dangerous to your fingers while attaching displays. Though the edges are not sharp, they are also not smooth. You could probably scratch yourself on it if you tried, but you would have to try quite hard to hurt yourself seriously on the extended external ends of the smaller heat-sink.