The DirectX 9.0c video cards are compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista, but if you really want to get the most out of this new operating system and upcoming games, you'll be better served with DirectX 10 compliant GPU. NVIDIA now has a full DirectX 10 product lineup available and all manufacturers have jumped on board with many different variants to suit different budgets. The GeForce 8600 GTS has proven itself to be the darling of the video card industry, but in its shadows is the GeForce 8600 GT. The main difference between the two video cards is the clock speed. The GeForce 8600 GT runs at 540MHz, while the former operates at 675MHz core frequency. - PCStats

Albatron GeForce 8600 GT 256MB Video Card Review

You can tell new technology is hot when manufacturers jump on it all at once, and the GeForce 8600 GT is just one of those video cards. There are a plethora of GeForce 8600 GT graphics cards on the market and we are pleased to be checking out Albatron's take on things. With a retail price of $147 the Albatron GeForce 8600 GT 256MB card is certainly a steal. Albatron's GeForce 8600 GT is a very inexpensive way to bring DirectX 10 graphics into your PC, this PCI Express video card is also SLI compatible. From a technical point the GeForce 8600 GT supports two dual DVI outputs and has 256MB of GDDR3 memory.

The Albatron GeForce 8600 GT 256MB video card is identical to the reference NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT except for the sticker on the heatsink. Physically the Albatron GeForce 8600 GT is a compact card, which is nice after playing around with the behemoth GeForce 8800 series that seemed to stretch forever. The GeForce 8600 GT graphics card does not require an extra power connector, so that's another nice change from all those power hungry video cards. Albatron and NVIDIA have done an excellent job with the heatsink used on this GeForce 8600 GT card, it keeps the little GT core nice and cool, and very quiet.

The clock speed of the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT is set at 540MHz, while the stream processors hum along at 1180MHz. The NVIDIA G84 core only comes equipped with 32 stream processors. The memory runs at a flat 1400MHz, yet with the GeForce 8600 GT the memory bus width is only 128-bit. That translates into a slight memory bandwidth limitation, particularly at higher resolutions or with visual effects like anti-aliasing enabled. Maximum memory size is supposed to be 256MB for all G84 based video cards, although we have seen already an exception from Gainward with 512MB memory.

While the G84 core carries onward with NVIDIA's current thinking of how a graphics processor should be built, there are a few notable changes from the G80. Gone are the hard coded vertex and pixel shaders, they've been replaced with a more flexible stream processors or unified shaders that calculates both types of data. The stream processors runs at 1180MHz incidently. Traditional core clock speeds as we know it are dead, as several internal processors are running at different speeds. Note that the GeForce 8600 GT and GTS GPU's have 32 stream processors with 16 stream processors equals one thread processor.

The GeForce 8600 GTS turned out to be a pretty good overclocker so we had some high hopes with the Albatron GeForce 8600 GT card. Starting with the core first, which is clocked at 540MHz, we had hopes of pushing it to GeForce 8600 GTS levels. The GeForce 8600 GT core made it past 675MHz easily enough, that's the stock speed of the GeForce 8600 GTS. The G84 core reached a maximum speed of 712MHz, anything higher and the system would start to lock up the system while running benchmarks. The memory chips did hit a nice top speed of 1760MHz effective.

The NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT GPU offers us a good Vista DirectX 10 compatible platform from which to build on. The Albatron GeForce 8600 GT 256MB video card is a very aggressive priced, so there isn't much to dissuade users seeking out an inexpensive graphical upgrade. The Albatron GeForce 8600 GT was decent at overclocking, the core rose to 712MHz and memory approached 1760MHz. You'll see the biggest boost from this Albatron card by overclocking the memory speed. If you need a DirectX 10 compatible graphics card that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, the Albatron GeForce 8600 GT is great option.