Multiple runs were made at each of the resolutions identified in the graphs below. The results reflect the average. All runs were made with no antialiasing (AA) and anisotropic filtering (AF) set at 4x. The results were very consistent with less than 2% variation and, considering more than 3 runs were made at each resolution, that is exceptional. Also of note, temperatures did not register more than 47C on the GPU. Compared with the other GTS card I ran through this benchmark, it runs around 10C cooler. This is a good initial indication that the iChill cooling setup on the 8600GTS XStriker3 is there for more than just looks.

Aquamark 3 Results

The results at each resolution, with the benchmark's default settings of no AA/4AF, indicate good performance for a GTS card. There is nothing exceptional here, but it is a mainstream entry. Scaling was consistent, and stability was excellent. Plus, it runs very cool at this benchmark and noise from the fan is not noticeable. I would say this initial test produced a very good result when compared with the previous generation DX9 cards.

With 3DMark06, the score is influenced more by CPU test results than it ever was before. Shader Models 2.0 and 3.0 are used exclusively for all vertex and pixel processing. The engine builds the shaders for each material in HLSL (high level shader language) and compiles in runtime by the GPU drivers. This makes for an up-to-date, stressful benchmark for the latest graphic cards and systems. I loaded it up and tested the 8600GTS XStriker3 to see how the card would perform with this high performance, low-budget test system.

3DMARK06 - Results

The Inno3D iChill 8600GTS XStriker3 did well, mimicking the reference design 8600 GTS results for the most part. It was a little behind in some test results in the benchmark. I did not post the comparison results, as the reference design I have been using was a slightly higher overclocked version (721/1050), which gave it a slight edge. The results above were achieved with the card at default clocks as it came right out of the box (705/1050) running in the test system used in this review. The GPU on this particular graphics card has about 10% more headroom so the 3DMark06 score can exceed 6100 3DMarks. However, I found the memory on this card not as overclocker 'friendly' and more satisfied with the default clock setting. Again, temperatures did not enter in as the cooling solution Inno3D has provided for the 8600GTS XStriker3 maintained the GPU temperature under 47C. I took several independent temperature readings off the base of selected memory chips during benchmarking and did not notice any rise in temperature that would cause concern.

Next Page: F.E.A.R. Performance