Albatron GeForce 8600 Graphics Cards Boston MA

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Originally published at Internet.com

Introduction

Since the release of the GeForce 8800 series, the DirectX 10 graphics market has been a very interesting one. The area was high-end only for half a year; first, we had the interminable ATI delays, the NVIDIA wait-and-see approach, until finally the GeForce 8 Series hit the entry-level and mainstream markets. These cards came in the form of the GeForce 8400, 8500 and 8600 lines, with the higher number denoting faster gaming performance. The GeForce 8400 GS is a baseline OEM card, while the GeForce 8500 GT, 8600 GT and 8600 GTS provide the entry-level, mid-range and high-end options in the mainstream market.

The GeForce 8600 GTS is by far the most interesting product in the group, as it offers the fastest game performance, as well as full DirectX 10 compatibility. This blend of performance and feature set is combined with a sub-$175 price tag, producing a very attractive DirectX 10 graphics card for the mainstream masses. We're looking the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB, and putting it up against a set of mainstream and high-end cards from the GeForce 7 Series and Radeon X1000 product lines to see exactly where it fits in the performance hierarchy.

The GeForce 8600 Series

The GeForce 8600 series offers the GeForce 8600 GT and GTS cards, both of which are based on the 80nm G84 graphics core. Like all GeForce 8 Series models, the G84 offers a unified shader architecture and is designed to support the latest DirectX 10/Shader Model 4.0 feature set. As usual, these cards differ in terms of clock speeds, but the rest of the features are consistent. The G84 features 32 Stream processors, which are clocked at 1.19 GHz for the GeForce 8600 GT and 1.45 GHz on the GeForce 8600 GTS. The GeForce 8600 cards include 256MB/512MB of GDDR3, and support features like NVIDIA Lumenex, Pure Video HD, nView, and SLI technologies.

The core and memory speeds are similarly differentiated for the GeForce 8600 GT (540 MHz/1.4 GHz) and GeForce 8600 GTS (675 MHz/2.0 GHz) cards. The Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB uses the more powerful of the two G84-based GPUs, and the above architecture and clock speeds translate into some very nice performance specifications like a 10.8 GT/s fillrate and 32 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The core architecture also includes 8 texture address units, 16 texture filtering units, and 8 ROPs, which is similar to the base structure of the GeForce 7600 GT, but with a slightly more powerful GPU running at a higher clock speed.

It's all not wine and roses when it comes to the GeForce 8600 GTS, and many have complained that NVIDIA created too much of a gap between the top mainstream and lowest high-end GeForce 8 Series cards. The 32 Stream processors may seem a big jump back from the GeForce 8800 series, but this type of architecture is to be expected for a mainstream card. The major negative with the GeForce 8600 GTS design is its 128-bit memory interface. This is a step back from last-generation high-end cards, which commonly use a 256-bit interface, and well behind the 384-bit memory link on the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra. NVIDIA has compensated with extremely high clocks speeds, but it doesn't solve all the problems.

The Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB Card

The Albatron version of the GeForce 8600 GTS PCI Express card keeps on the straight and narrow, running at the standard NVIDIA clock speeds of 675 MHz core, 1.45 GHz shaders, and 2.0 GHz memory. The card is a single-slot design that offers a diminutive, Albatron-branded heatsink-fan that runs nearly silent during operation. The Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS does require an external PCI Express power connectorr, and in many ways, is equivalent to the design of the last-generation GeForce 7600 GT 256MB. The card's backplate features two dual-link DVI ports that support resolutions of up to 2560x1600, as well as a single HDTV/S-video out port. Like its GeForce 8 Series brethren, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB is HDCP capable and offers SLI support right out of the box.

The Albatron retail bundle is quite standard, but it does include all the basics needed to get up and running. It features a DVI-to-VGA dongle, a Molex-to-PCI Express power cord, and an HDTV break-out box. A Quick Installation Guide is also present, as is a driver CD, but there are no games of any sort. This is hardly surprising given the lack of DirectX 10 titles in the wild, especially low-cost OEM games, but we always like to find something that the new buyer can fire up and test out the new card. Albatron offers a conditional 2-year warranty on their VGA cards.

As this is a new architecture, it's very difficult to compare the GeForce 8 Series in terms of "pipelines" and other common terms of the previous GPU generations. Instead, we have assembled a set of specifications and performance metrics that should illustrate exactly where the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB fits in: Graphics Processor Core Clock (MHz) Fill Rate (MT/s) Memory Clock (MHz) Memory Bandwidth Memory Bus Radeon X1650 Pro 600 2400 1400 22.4 GB/s 128-bit GeForce 7600 GS 400 4800 800 12.8 GB/s 128-bit Radeon X1650 Pro 600 2400 1400

Test Setup

The Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB card represents the top mainstream option in the NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series. It is designed to replace the GeForce 7600 GT, while offering performance that rivals many GeForce 7 and Radeon X1000-based high-end cards. In this review, our standard system configuration consists of a high-end Intel platform, featuring a 2.93 GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor, 2x1GB of CAS4 DDR2-800, and an Intel 975X motherboard, This represents a very serious high-end platform for performance video card benchmarking, and ensures that the system configuration will not be the limiting factor.

The competition in our video card benchmarking comes from both the mainstream and entry high-end areas, and includes the GeForce 7600 GT 256MB, GeForce 7900 GT 256MB, and GeForce 7950 GT 512MB from NVIDIA and the Radeon X1650 XT 256MB, Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB and Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB from the ATI side. Since this is a DirectX 10 card, we have naturally upgraded our operating system to Windows Vista Home Premium, the most popular and prevalent of the Vista flavors.

Our benchmark selection is a series of high-end game tests such as Lost Planet (DirectX 9 & 10), Supreme Commander, Company of Heroes, F.E.A.R., 3DMark06 Advanced, Quake 4, DOOM 3, and FarCry. This represents a combination of many different game engines and feature sets, and all have proven stable and usable under Windows Vista.

Initial testing is performed using standard 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 32-bit settings, and then we move to the widescreen arena with high-end 4X anti-aliasing and 16X anisotropic filtering results at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 (or similar, depending on game support) resolutions . With widescreen gaming becoming so popular, this represents an area that high-end gamers will need covered.

* Please note that unless otherwise stated, all performance graph results equate to the standard "higher is better" format.

Test System

General Settings:
Desktop Resolution: 1920x1200
Color Depth: 32-bit
V-Sync: Disabled

Intel Core 2 Reference System:
Processors: Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2.93 GHz)
Memory: 2 x 1GB Ultra DDDR2-800 (CAS4)
Motherboard: Intel D975XBX2
Motherboard chip set: Intel 975X
NVIDIA reference drivers: ForceWare 158.24
ATI reference drivers: Catalyst 7.6
Hard-Drive: Seagate Barracuda 750GB
IDE Interface: Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s
CD/DVD: Samsung DVD-R SH-S162
Power Supply: Enermax EG651P-VE-24P 550W EPS12V
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium

Video Cards:

Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB
Radeon X1650 XT 256MB
GeForce 7600 GT 256MB
GeForce 7900 GT 256MB
Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB
GeForce 7950 GT 512MB
Radeon X1900 XTX

DOOM 3 Performance

DOOM 3 is a game that needs no introduction, and continues in a long line of id Software Quake and DOOM first-person shooters. This latest installment is one serious 3D game test, including some of the highest-end graphics yet seen on the PC. It is also a different type of game benchmark, especially compared to Quake 3, and it has an almost total reliance on the 3D video card for high-end framerate results. This limits its use in certain system or CPU testing, but makes DOOM 3 a killer 3D video card benchmark.

DOOM 3 is more of an old school graphics benchmark these days, and we can see this in some of the test results. The Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB shows very high scores for its class in DOOM 3, powering by both the GeForce 7600 GT and Radeon X1950 Pro, but it can't seem to crack to the high-end of the GeForce 7 line. The GeForce 7900 GT and 7950 GT are still well ahead of NVIDIA's latest mainstream GPU, but that is to be expected, especially with an older game like DOOM 3.

DOOM 3 AA and AF Widescreen Performance

The hierarchy shifts a bit when the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB moves to the higher resolution widescreen settings, as we upgrade to 4X AA and 16X AF detail options. Here, we see the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB slipping by the Albatron card, but the relative gap between the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS and GeForce 7 cards remains fairly constant.

Quake 4 Performance

Quake 4 is the latest in 3D first-person shooters from id Software and Raven, and while the actual storyline is pretty standard fare and the game itself is based on the DOOM 3 engine, the graphics are exceptional and it is an improvement over previous games. The lighting and shadow effects are excellent, and the overall level design and architecture are a real treat. The overall load on the graphics card can be extreme, which is both a blessing and a curse, depending on the actual hardware you are testing. For this review, we've updated to the latest patch, and use a custom netdemo for testing.

The Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB card fairs extremely well in base Quake 4 testing, speeding by the Radeon X1950 Pro, while coming extremely close to the GeForce 7900 GT.

Quake 4 AA and AF Widescreen Performance

Just like with DOOM 3, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB starts to fall back at the higher-end widescreen resolutions with 4X AA/16X AF detail settings. It still has more than enough juice to outpace the Radeon X1650 XT and GeForce 7600 GT 256MB cards, but falls just shy of the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB.

FarCry Performance

FarCry is a hot first-person shooter that takes in-game graphics to the next level, although in a different direction than DOOM 3. Instead of darkness and confined spaces, FarCry can place you outdoors, on bright sandy beaches, jungles or even on the water itself. This game gives our video cards a different kind of a stress test, and rest assured that FarCry ranks up there with the very toughest 3D game benchmarks. FarCry is an interesting benchmark, as it combines old school performance requirements with hot new features such as support for SM 3.0. For this test, we are using the full retail version updated to version 1.4, along with a new custom demo file.

The updated patches enable SM3.0 support for FarCry, and this makes it another good test of gaming feature sets and performance. This has turned into a very ATI-centric benchmark, and as you can see from the scores, the Radeon X1650 XT really pushes the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB, while the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB takes it to the high-end GeForce 7 Series cards. FarCry benchmark scores are still high for the mainstream class, and the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB proves to be a more than adequate contender in this range.

FarCry AA and AF Widescreen Performance

Once widescreen resolutions and 4X AA and 16X AF are brought into the equation, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB does extremely well against the GeForce 7 Series competition, but continues to be in tough against the ATI cards. Here, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS is able to post a competitive score at 1680x1050, but drops back behind the Radeon X1650 XT at 1920x1200.

Supreme Commander Performance

Supreme Commander is a high-end real-time strategy game, similar to a next-gen Total Annihilation, which combines killer graphics with top-level AI. The in-game visuals are incredible, and when there are multiple armored mechs in the same area, it can take a real toll on even high-end system configurations. This makes it a great benchmark for our high-end graphic cards, and while the in-game benchmarking program offers several different performance ratings (including FPS), we prefer the overall Render score, which is more dependant on the graphics component.

Supreme Commander is one of our newer benchmarks, and the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB certainly shows off its performance in this test. The Render benchmark scores have the Albatron card sitting ahead of both the Radeon X1950 Pro and GeForce 7900 GT 256MB cards, and just falling a bit short of the GeForce 7950 GT 512MB.

Supreme Commander AA and AF Widescreen Performance

Once we bring the anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing settings into play, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB does drop back a bit, but is still the class of the mainstream crowd. This is a serious benchmark, especially at 1920x1200, but the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS stays right on line with the GeForce 7900 GT.

F.E.A.R. Performance

F.E.A.R. (or First Encounter Assault Recon) is a one of the newer entrants to our game benchmark suite, and it features jaw-dropping graphics, a killer Matrix-like "reflex time" feature, and a physics engine that can bring any system to its knees. This Monolith production includes a wide selection of System and Video settings, along with an in-game testing module to keep things 100% comparable between different graphics cards. In this case, as we are dealing with video card performance, so we have racked the computer and graphics settings to high (max only increases AF and AA) and then testing at the different resolutions.

F.E.A.R. is one of the most demanding game benchmarks in our entire suite, and its overall design rewards both pure graphics performance and an SM 2.0/3.0 feature set. The Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB again posts extremely good scores in this test, outpacing both the Radeon X1950 Pro and GeForce 7900 GT cards. These are very impressive scores, and F.E.A.R. is certainly no creampuff benchmark even at standard resolutions and details.

F.E.A.R. AA and AF Widescreen Performance

The move to 4X AA and 8X AF detail settings drops all the mainstream cards back quite a bit, and you can really see where the extra detail and higher resolution puts a strain on the mid-range video cards, especially in the area of memory bandwidth.

Company of Heroes Performance

Company of Heroes is yet another new addition to our game benchmark suite, and as a newly-released product, it offers one of the most demanding benchmark environments ever. CoH is a WW2 real-time strategy game, which again provides us with a nice change of pace from the usual FPS benchmark. To give the video cards an even tougher time, we have enabled SM3.0, and set every available graphics option to High.

Company of Heroes is another very demanding part of our game benchmarking suite, and one that the ATI Radeon cards seem very adept at running. The scores bear this out, as we see the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB falling back of the Radeon X1950 Pro, while the powerful GeForce 7950 GT 512MB is beaten by the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB.

Company of Heroes AA and AF Widescreen Performance

The higher resolution widescreen results are even worse for the NVIDIA contingent, and all the GeForce-based cards take a huge hit at these settings.

Lost Planet DirectX 9/10 Widescreen Performance

Since we are evaluating a DirectX 10 video card, the use of Windows Vista is a definite requirement, but we also need some updated DirectX 10 game benchmarks as well. One of the best is the Lost Planet performance test, which comes in both DirectX 9 and 10 flavors, which allow across-the-board comparisons against last-generation graphics cards. The benchmark is also extremely tough on the hardware, and the resultant scores can be quite hard on the mainstream graphics cards, showing unplayable framerates in many cases. Since this is a high-end DirectX 9/10 game benchmark, we've utilized widescreen resolutions from the start, choosing 1600x1000 and 1920x1200.

To say that Lost Planet is a demanding game benchmark would be the understatement of the year, as you can almost hear the system grinding as it completes the testing. The initial Cave test area gets the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB off to a good start, as it outpaces both the GeForce 7900 GT and Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB cards. The GeForce 8 Series mainstream flagship does score higher in DirectX 9 compared to DirectX 10, but this was the same story with higher-end GeForce 8800-based cards as well.

If the Cave portion of the Lost Planet benchmark is tough, then the Snow section is downright evil. The framerates drop back considerably, and we see the ATI cards putting in a better showing. Even so, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB posts score equal or better than a GeForce 7950 GT 512MB.

Lost Planet DirectX 9/10 AA and AF Widescreen Performance

Adding 4X anti-aliasing and 16X anisotropic filtering to the mix results in a brutal benchmarking environment, and the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB has a severe drop-off in overall framerates. Here the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS easily outperforms the GeForce 7900 GT 256MB, but the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB now pushes ahead.

We see much of the same results in the Snow portion of the Lost Planet benchmark, but under this scenario, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS continues to post scores close to the GeForce 7950 GT 512MB, but the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB now pushes ahead.

3DMark06 Advanced Performance

3DMark06 Advanced is the latest version of this popular 3DMark series of gaming benchmarks from Futuremark, and is the first to showcase new HDR/SM3.0 and SM2.0 graphics tests, as well as offering multi-core tailored CPU tests. The Feature tests have also been enhanced for the newest 3D support, and helps provide reliable measurements for game hardware of today and tomorrow. This is one very serious performance test, which punishes cards that do not fully support HDR/SM3.0 or SM2.0, and really puts video hardware to the next-generation test. In this review, we will be concentrating on the individual benchmark tests covering fill rate, vertex and pixel shading, SM2.0/SM3.0 results, and the individual Shader Particles and Perlin Noise SM3.0 tests.

3DMark06 Advanced Fill Rate Performance

The first part of our 3DMark06 Advanced testing utilizes the Feature Test portion of the benchmark (at the standard 1280x1024 resolution), and concentrates on the Fill Rate performance. This chart shows the cards ranked by Fill Rate performance, with the number displayed representing MTexels/second.

The Fill Rate benchmark tests show the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS competing extremely well against the other mainstream competitors, outpacing both the GeForce 7600 GT and Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB cards in the multi-texturing benchmark. The GeForce 7900 GT and 7950 GT are significantly faster in these tests, owing to their more robust pipeline architecture.

3DMark06 Advanced Vertex and Pixel Shader Performance

The 3DMark06 Advanced Pixel and Vertex Shader benchmark is where we start getting into the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB's wheelhouse, and while the Pixel Shader scores are good, the Vertex Shader results are by far the best on the chart.

3DMark06 Advanced SM2.0 & SM3.0/HDR Performance

The SM2.0 & SM3.0/HDR benchmark results offer more of the same, and the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB continues to perform well above the mainstream range. Its SM2.0 score is just a hair behind the Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB, while its HDR/SM3.0 result is not that far back of the GeForce 7950 GT 512MB.

3DMark06 Advanced Shader Particles & Perlin Noise SM3.0 Performance

The final 3DMark section includes the Shader Particles and Perlin Noise benchmarks, which are both SM3.0 shader tests. The Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB posts adequate scores in the Perlin Noise benchmark, but smokes the field in the Shader particles test. Please note that the ATI Radeon X1000 cards cannot complete the Shader particles testing.

Benchmark Analysis and Overclocking

The overall benchmark performance is kind of a mixed bag, as in some cases the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB performs on par with many high-end video cards, while in others, it falls back to mainstream levels. Although there are some individual game discrepancies, the primary differences occur when resolutions and detail levels are increased to extreme levels, such as antialiasing and anisotropic filtering at 1920x1200. This may be a case of the 128bit memory interface coming back to haunt the GeForce 8600 GTS, as the other high-end cards offer at least a 256-bit interface. Even so, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB is the fastest mainstream card we've tested, and easily outpaces the GeForce 7600 GT and Radeon X1650 XT, while finishing extremely close to the Radeon X1950 Pro and GeForce 7900 GT.

Overclocking is very difficult under Windows Vista, and even with applications that work under this operating system, the functionality can still be limited. We used a few, and finally settled on the NVIDIA nTune application, as it gave us the easiest access to clock settings, and offered the best results. Even so, it's no where near as simple as the old Coolbits hack, and there is no automatic overclocking feature, no stability testing - just pure numbers. After working the settings over in a very rudimentary manner, we were able to jack the clock speeds of the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB to approximately 11% on the core, and 18% of the memory. This is certainly not an extravagant overclock, but it may have been held back by the Vista operating system.

Value

Current retail pricing on GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB cards sit in the $160-$175 range, and the Albatron model can be found at similar price levels. This compares to other mid-range and high-end cards like the GeForce 7600 GT 256MB ($95-$110), Radeon X1650 XT 256MB ($100-$115), Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB ($115-$130), GeForce 8600 GT 256MB ($115-$130), Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB ($135-$150), and GeForce 7900 GS 256MB ($150-$160). In this range, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB stands out as an excellent value, especially in the DirectX 10 arena, although the recent price drops to the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB make it a very close contest.

* Please note that online prices reflect Retail models when possible, only OEM where noted. Prices are taken at the time of review, and are not intended to reflect long-term trends.

Conclusion

NVIDIA may have waited a while before unleashing their mainstream DirectX 10 line, but in many ways, the GeForce 8600 GTS is certainly worth the wait. The Albatron GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB is a very nice implementation of this technology, sporting an attractive retail price and offering a low-profile, quiet-running card for gamers on a budget. The 128-bit memory interface and 32 Stream processors do create a huge gap between it and the GeForce 8800 line, but the high clock speeds help alleviate these concerns, especially at a mainstream price.

Pros: * DirectX 10/SM4.0 Support * Mainstream Price * Good Performance for the Class

Cons: * 128-bit Memory Interface * Big Step Down From the GeForce 8800

Ratings: