![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , August 21, 2007
- Author:
- Matthew Krysiak
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
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.
Flight Simulator X
(DirectX 9)
Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X is the latest Flight Simulator. New in this version is support for DirectX 9 graphics using Shader Model 2.0. Some of the other improvements include more air, land and water traffic, better weather which can be downloaded directly from the Internet live, more planes and locations, better textures and some new shader effects.
The graphics settings menus can be a bit daunting. There are five important tabs, Graphics, Aircraft, Scenery, Weather and Traffic. Under each of these tabs is a global selection drop down box with several pre-set settings such as “ultra high” or “medium high” or “low”. For our evaluation we are going to use these pre-set options to make it easier for you to compare at home and give you an idea of what you can expect using the default game settings provided. Note that even setting “ultra high” from this drop down box will not set the absolute highest possible slider settings in each menu. There is in fact a tremendous amount of growth in realism for this game as hardware performance improves over the course of several years.
For our evaluation we will start on the ground inside of a thunderstorm in Seattle, change to spot view and zoom out all the way to put the most burden on graphics. We will then set a course to a specific location at a low altitude (because it is more graphically intense to fly low in the game over cities) and let the autopilot do its thing.
In Flight Simulator X Deluxe both of the XFX cards were able to handle the same settings with the XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition able to maintain a slightly higher average framerate. The higher framerates did not translate into allowing us to increase gameplay settings however. With the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT we had to turn down the resolution to 1024x768 and then the aircraft setting to medium high in order to maintain a playable framerate. It should be noted that the available settings of ultra high and high produce the same result so the aircraft settings for the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT are only one step below the XFX cards in visual quality.
Even with the lower settings on the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT both XFX cards were able to maintain a higher average framerate. The XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition was able to maintain the highest average framerate but the real winner is with XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition. With the same settings and only a 3% difference in average framerates compared to its more expensive bigger brother.
Image Quality
Screenshots below are in PNG format to eliminate compression artifacts and can range in file size of 1-3 MB.
This comparison screenshot shows the difference between ultra high and medium high aircraft settings, which is that the aircraft can cast a shadow on itself. Also quite visible is the resolution difference, and in this game it can make a large impact on your gameplay experience. Flight Sim X produces a lot of jaggy lines, and being able to run at higher resolutions improves not only image quality, but also provides a bigger world that is viewable.