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#903 - Zotac 8600GTS Video Card |
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Written by Zach Jeffers
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Tuesday, 01 January 2008 |
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Page 4 of 5
Benchmarks:
For testing of the Zotac 8600GTS video card, we used the following hardware:
Operating Systems: Windows XP Pro 32-bit (SP2) and Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Enclosure: Antec P190 (Noctua NF-S12 intake fans) with included PSU's
Processor: AMD 3800+ X2 (Socket AM2)
Motherboard: ECS
KA3 MVP
Memory: Crucial
Ballistix 2gig (2 x 1gig) DDR2 PC2-6400
Video: Zotac 8600GTS 256mb GDDR3 PCI-E x16
Storage: 2 x Western Digital RE WD2500YS 250GB (RAID0)
As you can see, Vista takes its toll on your FPS scores. This has been pretty well known around the industry, but you can see the numbers for yourself here. In the 3dMark scores you can see a even 2-3% loss of performance when using Vista. In gaming, you can see a difference of anywhere between 2-35% difference in gaming performance!
During testing, we were able to overclock the video card using the nVidia nTune software to a decent overclock. We found a stable overclock of the GPU at 750Mhz and the memory at 1100Mhz. We were able to run benchmarks at speeds higher than 850Mhz on the GPU but when pushing the higher resolutions, like 1680x1050, the graphics drivers gave out in Vista (though Vista still caught the crash and recuperated). Even at 750Mhz and 1100Mhz, this is a 10% increase in raw Mhz with increases reflected in gaming; even if meager.
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