NVIDIA's GeForce 8 series of graphics processing units have been a huge success in the graphics card market ever since they debuted last November. Just ask any gamer what video card they have or dream of having and sure enough, most gamers will say they want a GeForce 8 series card, a high-end model of course. But in reality, there are still many gamers rocking out the GeForce 7 series. These gamers either don't bother to upgrade or they just don't have the dough to shell out for a newer graphics card. If you happen to fall into the second category, we feel for you. Guess what, we were in the same boat! The good news is that there is hope for those with smaller wallets. - nV News

MSI GeForce 8600 GT Twin Turbo Video Card Review

Today we are going to take a glance at MSI's latest addition to their GeForce 8600 GT based graphics cards lineup, dubbed the GeForce 8600 GT Twin Turbo. This is MSI's third version of the GeForce 8600 GT and they have made some improvements over the last two models. Maybe by the sound of things, the Twin Turbo will make you think that this card is a beastly GeForce 8600 GT or that it will be superclocked straight out of the factory. The truth is the Twin Turbo makes this GeForce 8600 GT quite unique. Compared to the reference GeForce 8600 GT, the Twin Turbo has higher core, shader and memory clocks.

Just taking a quick look at the graphics card, you can easily tell that the GeForce 8600 GT Twin Turbo does not require a PCI Express 6-pin connector. Remember that this is a dual slot card, meaning that the cooling solution provided is something you would expect on a higher-end model. There are two DVI outputs on the back and of course what makes this card oh so unique, the Twin Turbo button. This is a new hardware feature that easily overclocks the graphics card with a single push of a button. The card has two BIOS chips onboard so you basically switch between the two using the Twin Turbo button.

Overall, the GeForce 8600 GT Twin Turbo is an excellent GeForce 8 series solution for those on a budget. It's a nice step up from a GeForce 7600 GT and will cost around $120-150 retail, although no official retail price has been set at this time. It is a dual slot design with a nice cooling solution and a very unique Twin Turbo feature that gives that little extra boost in frame rates. The extra BIOS can even be used as a backup should a bad flash corrupt the BIOS in use, which is a great advantage for the tweakers amongst us. Personally, the graphics card has worked excellent for us and our rig.

It hasn't chewed my GeForce 7600 GT and spat it out or anything, but it has certainly increased performance in all of our games and also allowed us to play at higher resolutions. Remember, that the GeForce 8600 GT is a lower-end GPU when it comes to the existing GeForce 8 series lineup. The bottom line is that we would recommend the GeForce 8600 GT Twin Turbo to anyone who still has a video card equal to or lower than the GeForce 7600 GT and is on a small budget. This is by far one great graphics card.