Premda naš prvi test grafičke kartice bazirane na GeForce 8600 GTS čipu dosta kasni u odnosu na datum službenog predstavljanja novog nVidjinog mainstream rješenja, nova serija kartica na tržištu još uvijek nema nikakvu konkurenciju. AMD je najavio HD 2600 seriju grafičkih kartica koje bi trebale parirat GeForce 8600 seriji, no ovih kartica još uvijek nema na tržištu tako da su GeForce 8600 kartice trenutno jedini izbor za korisnike koji žele DX10 kompatibilnu karticu s cijenom između 1000 i 1500 kn. Ipak, obzirom da trenutno nije dostupna niti jedna DX10 igra, postavlja se pitanje da li se GeForce 8600 serija može nositi sa starijim karticama slične cijene kao što je npr. Radeon X1950 Pro. Prema rezultatima našeg testiranja, GeForce 8600 GTS u većini testova ima osjetno slabije performanse nego Radeon X1950 Pro, pa samim tim nije dobar izbor ako vas zanima zabava s igrama koje su već na tržištu. AMD-ova kartica također ima veliku prednost u cijeni s obzirom da je oko 25% jeftinija nego GeForce 8600 GTS. S druge strane, prednosti nVidijinog rješenja su kvalitetniji AF algoritam te bolje podrška za hardversko dekodiranje HD videa (H.264, VC-1).

Što se tiče Gigabyteove kartice GV-NX86S256H, ona će se najviše svidjeti korisnicima koji jako paze na to da je buka koje generira njihovo računalo što niža. Pasivni hladnjak Silent-pipe III ugrađen na ovu karticu garantira bešumno hlađenje, no istovremeno nije najbolje rješenje ako planirate overclockati. Također moramo pohvaliti bundle budući da se u njemu nalazi puna verzija odličnog RTS-a Supreme Commander. Cijena ove kartice je oko 1570 kn što je smješta u grupu jeftinijih rješenja baziranih na GeForce 8600 GTS čipu.

Na kraju, da li kupiti karticu baziranu na GeForce 8600 GTS čipu? Ako ste vlasnik Radeona X1950 Pro, GeForcea 7900 GS ili koje druge još snažnije kartice koja ne podržava DX10, savjetujemo vam da pričekate da se na tržištu pojavi veći broj kvalitetnih DX10 igara, pa tek onda krenite u kupovinu kartice s kojom ćete moći uživati u novim igrama. Ako ste pak vlasnik GeForcea 7600, Radeona X1650 ili neke druge slabije kartice, predlažemo vam da pričekate testove kartica iz Radeon HD 2600 serije koje također nude kompatibilnost s DX10 API-jem u istom cijenovnom segmentu, pa onda napravite konačan izbor.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that our first review of GeForce 8600 GTS based graphics card is pretty late considering official launch date of GeForce 8600 series, new nVidia mainstream cards still don’t have any DX10 compatible competition in the same price bracket. While AMD announced and disclosed specifications of Radeon HD 2600 graphics cards which fall in same market segment as GeForce 8600 cards, new mainstread Radeon HDs are still not available in shops. That also means that GeForce 8600 cards are currently only solution for users who want to buy DirectX 10 compatible graphics card with price between 1000 and 1500 kn (135 and 205 €). Then again, you still can’t buy any DirectX 10 games so another question arises – can GeForce 8600 series compete with older, similary priced graphics card like Radeon X1950 Pro. Judging by the results of our testing, GeForce 8600 GTS, most powerful member of GeForce 8600 family, performs much slower than Radeon X1950 Pro in majority of games we used for testing. Because of that, if you are looking for card playing games that are already on the market, GeForce 8600 GTS based cards are not the best choice. AMDs card has one more strong advantage and that is price because most Radeon X1950 Pro cards are about 25% cheaper than GeForce 8600 GTS based cards. On the other hand, advantages of new GeForce GPUs are better anisotropic filtering and better HD video (H.264, VC-1) hardware decoder.

As for Gigabyte GV-NX86S256H, this card will probably be very interesting to users who cherish quiet computing more than performance. Passive cooler Silent-pipe III installed on this GeForce 8600 GTS based card offers noiseless cooling, but its not so great solution for overclocking. One more thing we would like to commend is new Gigabyte bundle because package of this card contains full version of excellent RTS game Supreme Commander. Price of this graphics card in croatian computer shops is about 1570 kn which is mild in comparison to price of other GeForce 8600 GTS cards on the market.

The final question – should you buy GeForce 8600 GTS based graphics card? If your current video solution is Radeon X1950 Pro, GeForce 7900 GS or any other more powerful graphics card which doesn’t support DX10, your best option is to wait until solid number of DirectX 10 games arrive on the market. When that happens, its the perfect time for buying a graphics card that will suit your needs. On the other hand, if you use GeForce 7600, Radeon 1650 or any other slower card, we advice you to wait for benchmarks of Radeon HD 2600 cards which offer DX10 compatibility in the same price segment as GeForce 8600, and then make your final choice.