Overview
Along with the PNY Verto 8600 GTS graphics card that launched today I am also having a look at the XFX 8600 GTS XXX. The infamous XXX moniker from XFX means that the 8600 GTS is factory overclocked whereas the PNY Verto 8600 GTS ran at stock NVIDIA reference clocks. How much of a performance edge does the overclocking of the XFX 8600 GTS XXX provide? Read on to find out.

Hands-On Review

Features & Specifications
XFX habitually makes the hottest NVIDIA cards on the market. Today XFX is announcing the newest member of the XXX family in the 8600 GTS XXX. The 8600 GTS XXX has the same features as the PNY Verto 8600 GTS that I reviewed today. The difference between the PNY card and the XFX card lies in the clock speed and the warranty. The XFX 8600 GTS XXX has a core speed of 730MHz and a memory clock of 2.26GHz on the 256MB of RAM as compared to the PNY Verto 8600 GTS with a core speed of 675MHz and a memory clock of 2000MHz.

XFX has the best warranty for their graphics cards in the business with a double lifetime warranty meaning that you and the person you sell or give your XFX graphics card to get the same lifetime warranty. XFX is now sweetening the warranty by honoring the double lifetime warranty even if the card dies as a result of overclocking. So long as the card is not physically damaged XFX will replace it if it fails for you and the second owner.

Test System Specifications
I tested the PNY Verto 8600 GTS in a test system with the following specifications:

• CPU- Intel QX6700
• OS- Windows XP Pro SP2
• RAM- 2GB PNY XLR8 PC2-8500
• Mainboard- EVGA 680i

3DMark06
I used the same test applications to benchmark the XFX 8600 GTS XXX as I did for the PNY 8600 GTS consisting of 3Dmark06, FEAR, Battlefield 2142 and Quake 4. The first test up was with 3DMark06 which I ran at default settings for the application and NVIDIA control panel, the results were as follows:

• Total 3DMarks- 6309
• SM2.0- 2507
• HDR/SM3.0- 2241
• CPU- 3926
• Return to Proxycon- 19.354
• Firefly Forest- 22.431
• Canyon Flight- 19.785
• Deep Freeze- 25.040
• CPU1- 1.319
• CPU2- 1.869

To compare the PNY Verto 8600 GTS scored a total of 5831 3DMarks and the XFX 8800 GTS 320MB XXX scored 9150 total 3DMarks on a test machine using an AMD FX-62 CPU rather than the much faster Intel QX6700 I am currently using.

FEAR
The next test up for the XFX 8600 GTS XXX was with FEAR. I used the FEAR in game test loop to get the frame rate information at a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024, 4x AA, no soft shadows, 16x AF and all other settings on max. The frame rate data recorded was as follows:

• Min- 25 fps
• Avg- 40 fps
• Max 83 fps

The percentages showed that the frame rates never dipped below 25 fps, 65% of the time frame rates were 25-40 fps and 35% of the time frame rates were greater than 40 fps.

Battlefield 2142
Next up was Battlefield 2142 which I ran at a screen resolution of 1600 x 1200 with 4x AA and all settings on high. I used Fraps to capture frame rate data on the single player map "Fall of Berlin." Fraps recorded the following frame rate data:

• Min- 22
• Avg- 32.693
• Max- 38

Quake 4
The final test up for the XFX 8600 GTS XXX was with Quake 4. I again used Fraps to record frame rate data at a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 with multi-core on, 8x AA and settings on high. Fraps recorded the following frame rate data:

• Min- 16
• Avg- 39.816
• Max- 62

Anyway you cut it the XFX 8600 GTS XXX has great performance. XFX has set the MSRP for the XFX 8600 GTS XXX at $239.99. That represents a $40 price premium over the PNY Verto 8600 GTS pricing set for Etail. Whether or not that $40 is well spent going for the XXX over the PNY card depends on how you want to use the card. There is little doubt the XXX is faster than the PNY card so it really depend son how tight your budget is. If you can swing the extra $40 I would go for the faster card.

Verdict

Pros

• Factory overclocked
• Double lifetime warranty
• Bundled game

Cons

• No support for PureVideo HD on Windows XP

Verdict
There is little doubt that if what you are after is the fastest 8600 GTS around you need to be shopping XFX. The XFX 8600 GTS XXX is a very good graphics card for gaming on common 17" and 19" LCD displays and larger if you can stand to loose some image quality.

I4U Rating: 9.5/10