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XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition

A GeForce 8600 GT, a GeForce 8600 GTS or a Radeon HD 2600 XT, which is the best value?. We will compare a brand new XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition with a XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition as well as the Radeon HD 2600 XT in current games.

Introduction

In this evaluation we will be looking at the XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition in comparison to a XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition and an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT. We have previously evaluated the Radeon HD 2600 XT as you can see in the link and we used several games. In this evaluation we will be using some games we did not use in that initial evaluation to give a broader view of the gameplay experience. We will be using Flight Simulator X, Halo 2, Oblivion: The Shivering Isles, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (DX9 mode), and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade in this evaluation.

The moniker “XXX Edition” indicates that this video card is very highly factory overclocked. XFX has taken the GeForce 8600 GT GPU and equipped it with 256 MB of GDDR3, increased the GPU core speed from 540 MHz to 620 MHz, and increased the memory frequency from 1.4 GHz (700 MHz actual) to 1.6 GHz (800 MHz actual). If you would like to read more about the GeForce 8600 GT architecture you can read here.

XFX GeForce 8600 GT 256MB XXX Edition

XFX's box is slim and just big enough to fit the card and the few accessories that are included with it. On the front of the box it displays a SLI ready logo, a 256 MB DDR3 logo, the core frequency, and a XXX Edition logo. Though XFX has left out that the memory is being overclocked, this leaves us wondering why they are not touting this with its own logo.

The back of the box is elegantly simple and tells you about the key features of the 8600 GT. It also tells you that it includes a DVI to analog adapter.

On the side of the box we can see the specific model we are evaluating today, PV-T84J-UDD3. Underneath, it lets us know it is a GeForce (GF) 8600 GT with a 620 MHz core clock speed (620M), has 256 MB of DDR3, Dual DVI ports, a S-Video out port (TV), it uses PCI Express, and it is a XXX Edition.

The XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition needs no external power connector, and is SLI ready. The video card uses a black PCB board, and a black IO bracket. It has two neon green/yellow DVI ports and a black S-Video out port. The heatsink itself is black and has a mostly white sticker on top of it. On the sticker it has dog tags with the XFX logo on it and under the dog tags is says “GeForce 8600 GT”. On the back of the card again we can see the specific model and details about the card on the sticker. The card comes with a manual, a driver CD, a DVI to VGA adapter, and an S-Video cable. For being a highly overclocked video card, the cooling is quite simple indeed.

The Comparison

As you can see above the XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition is the shortest of the three video cards at just 7” long. The XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition and ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT are 7.5” and 9” long. The heatsink itself is smaller on the XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition in comparison to the XFX 8600 GTS XXX Edition. Since the only difference between the two video cards is clock frequencies, it will be interesting to see how high the 8600 GT will overclock. You may also notice that the XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition is the only one of the three that requires external power.

The XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition is currently also the cheapest at $120 after a $20 mail-in rebate. The ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT is currently $145 on newegg. This makes the XFX GeForce 8600 GTS the most expensive of the three at currently $180 after rebate.