MSI Overclocked GeForce 8600 GT Review

How We Tested

During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only different device was the video card being tested.

Hardware Configuration

• Motherboard: ASUS P5B (Intel P965, 0904 BIOS)
• CPU: Core 2 Extreme X6800 (dual-core, 2.93 GHz)
• CPU Cooler: Gigabyte Neon 775-BL
• Memory: 2 GB PC-1066/PC2-8500 (Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 kit), configured at 1,066 MHz with 5-5-5-15 timings.
• Hard Drive: Samsung HD080HJ (80 GB, SATA-300, 8 MB buffer, 7,200 rpm)
• Power Supply: Zalman ZM-600HP
• Video Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 1100MB
• Screen resolution: 1280x1024x32@85 Hz

Software Configuration

• Windows XP Professional installed using NTFS
• Service Pack 2
• Direct X 9.0c
• Intel inf driver version: 8.0.1.1002
• ATI video driver version: Catalyst 7.2
• NVIDIA video driver version: 93.71 (GeForce 6 and 7 Family)
• NVIDIA video driver version: 158.22 (GeForce 8 Family)

Used Software

• 3DMark03 Professional Edition 3.6.0
• 3DMark06 Professional Edition 1.10
• Battlefield 2142 1.01
• Far Cry 1.4 with HardwareOC Far Cry Benchmark 1.7
• F.E.A.R. 1.08
• Quake 4 1.3

We adopted a 3% error margin; thus, differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.