NVIDIA's GeForce 8600 GTS has proven so potent that AMD hasn't introduced a mid-range Radeon HD graphics card to compete directly with it. In fact, AMD actually lowered the price of its Radeon HD 2600 XT prior to the card's launch to avoid a direct face-off with the GTS. That alone speaks volumes about the mix of performance and features that the GeForce 8600 GTS brings to the table. If you're in the market for a GeForce 8600 GTS, there are plenty to choose from, including BFG's new OC2 model. As one might expect, this card comes factory overclocked. The OC2 has another ace up its sleeve though, namely BFG's new Thermo Intelligence cooler. - TheTechReport

BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 Graphics Board Review

Designed new from the ground up, this single slot cooler aims to strike a nice balance between superior cooling and acceptable noise levels. NVIDIA's mid-range reference coolers have generally been pretty marginal, so there's certainly room for improvement. But other manufacturers have their own cooling solutions, too, and Thermo Intelligence already has plenty of competition. At its core, BFG's GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 is not unlike any other GeForce 8600 GTS card; it uses the same G84 GPU with 32 stream processors and has the same 128-bit path to 256MB of GDDR3 memory.

NVIDIA's reference design for the GeForce 8600 GTS calls for respective core and memory clocks of 675MHz and 2000MHz, but BFG has cranked those up to 720MHz and 2220MHz. That puts the OC2 ahead of most of the GeForce 8600 GTS field, although XFX and ASUS offer versions with slightly higher speeds. However, those cards come standard with NVIDIA's reference cooler for the GeForce 8600 GTS, and the OC2 does not. Instead, it sports a custom cooling solution of BFG's own design that the company reckons is far superior to what NVIDIA offers, but roughly the same size.

The handy automatic overclocking utility built into NVIDIA's graphics drivers and then relocated to its nTune system utility doesn't seem to be working properly with the GeForce 8600 series. so we had to kick it old-school with manual slider manipulation and loads of trial and error testing. We managed to hit 796MHz core and 2302MHz memory clock speeds with the BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2, which is higher than we've been able to overclock any other GTS card. However, as is always the case with overclocking, it's hard to draw definitive conclusions based on the stable clock speeds of a single sample.

In an era where elaborate heatpipe arrays and dual slot heatsinks have almost become the norm, BFG's Thermo Intelligence cooler could easily blend into the background. Thermo Intelligence is really little more than an intelligent repositioning of fan and radiator elements, but it works very well for what is ultimately a subtle design. What's impressive here isn't so much how cool Thermo Intelligence is able to keep the GPU on BFG's GeForce 8600 GTS OC2, but how quietly it does so while consuming only a single slot. The GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 is no slouch, either.

All this sounds good until you get to the price tag. The GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 currently sells for $240 and up online, giving it the undesirable distinction of being by far the most expensive GeForce 8600 GTS in our price search engine. What's more, the majority of GTS cards, including some with comparable clock speeds and warranty coverage to the OC2 can be had for much less than $200. Those cards don't have Thermo Intelligence, of course, but the cooler would have to be a revelation to be worth a $40-60 premium on a mid-range card. It's good, but I don't think it's that good.