BFG GeForce 8600GTS OC2 Review
Testing Setup & Overclocking
To test the BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2, we set up a new test rig equipped with Intel's new 1333MHz FSB Core 2 Duo E6750 CPU. We built our system on EVGA’s 680i SLI motherboardand used Corsair’s XMS PC2-8500 DDR2 memory. Since the BFG GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 comes factory overclocked and is equipped with a custom heatsink fan, we will try to see how high the card can stably overclock and we will compare the card’s performance to that of the recently reviewed HIS Radeon HD 2600 Pro IceQ Turbo ($140) and the reference 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT ($105-$115). We’re using the latest updates and patches for our games. To do our testing, we turned all of our games to high quality and ran 60 second FRAPS sequences three times, averaging the score you see in the tests.
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Video Cards -
Memory - Audio - Hard Drive - |
Hardware Used: EVGA nForce 680i SLI BFG GeForce 8600GTS OC2 (256MB) 2048MB Corsair XMS PC2-8500 RAM
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 |
OS - Chipset Drivers - DirectX - Video Drivers - |
Relevant Software: Windows XP Professional SP2 nForce Drivers v9.53 DirectX 9.0c NVIDIA Forceware v162.18 ATI Catalyst v7.8 Benchmarks Used: Battlefield 2 v1.4 F.E.A.R. v1.08 Half-Life 2: Episode 1 Rainbow Six: Vegas v1.02 |
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With our brand new BFG GeForce 8600GTS OC2 installed and ready to go, we wanted to see just how far we could push the card and its new Thermo Intelligence cooler. Already overclocked 45MHz on its core and 110MHz on its memory right out of the box, we used NVIDIA’s nTune overclocking software to pump up both the core and memory clocks on the card. To test our highest stable operating frequencies, we started by increasing the core frequency by 10MHz and then tested for artifacts and instability. We repeated the same process with memory, and once we found our maximum frequencies, we ran the card at them overnight to ensure stability.
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Our overclocking tests resulted in a 100% stable overclock with a core clock speed of 803MHz and memory clock speed of 1187MHz. Our overclock was an 83MHz increase in the shipping core clock frequency of the BFG GeForce 8600GTS OC2, and a 77MHz overclock in the shipping memory frequency of the card. We left the automatic fan control on during the overclocking session, and were surprised by how quiet BFG’s Thermo Intelligence cooler really was. Even when overclocked, the fan was hardly audible over the two 80mm exhaust fans in my test rig.
