When it comes to graphics cards, ASUS is one of the few manufacturers who doesn't follow the mold. Not only do they produce both ATI and NVIDIA based graphics cards, they seldom utilize the reference cooler. In fact they even offer a wide variety of passively cooled cards. The product we are looking at today isn't passively cooled, but it does have the potential to be quiet. The Extreme N8600 GT OC Gear is a graphics card with a large, radial aluminum heatsink and an interesting feature we have never seen before. The first hardware based real-time overclocking device for graphics cards overclocking and an integrated fan speed controller with a user friendly operation. - SilentPCReview

ASUS Extreme N8600 GT OC Gear Video Card Review

The card is based on the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT, which supports DirectX 10, HDCP, as well as dual DVI output. It's a popular choice for budget gaming and high definition multimedia playback, though it lacks a HDMI port. The board itself has a very clean layout with capacitors out of the way and plenty of room around the heatsink. It's a small card so it should have modest power and cooling demands. With fins spread out radially and the fan blowing down the center, the cooler bears a striking resemblance to the old Thermaltake Crystal Orb and Zalman Flower cooling heatsinks.

After all our benchmarks, we have mixed feelings about the ASUS Extreme N8600GT OC Gear graphics accelerator. The actual graphics card itself is an exellent product, having modest power requirement and impressive high definition playback ability in a compact form. With an above average cooler and low temperatures, there is obviously a lot of headroom if you're looking to squeeze better gaming performance out of the card via overclocking. Gaming is an aspect we are not qualified to discuss nor much interested in. The fan is a little too noisy for our liking, though it performs well.

It's obvious from our benchmarks that a slower, quieter fan would have done just fine. There's also the matter of the extra expense added of the OC Gear unit. It's hard to justify the additional cost when for the same price, you can purchase the next highest model, the GeForce 8600 GTS. It's not a particularly useful piece of hardware, as much of its functionality can be reproduced with various software programs. Fan speed control can be customized and overclocking done on the fly from the desktop with very little interaction by the user, and frame rates can be displayed on-screen in almost all modern games.

We applaud the innovation shown by ASUS, but it's clear that improvements can definitely be made to the OC Gear module to make it more functional and worthwhile. It would also be advisable to bundle it with a high-end card instead, as the price difference wouldn't be as glaring and perspective buyers would be more willing to spend a bit more.