# XFX 8600GT SLI beats 8800GTS 320MB OC and Costs Less



## Harvik780 (Nov 8, 2007)

*img141.imageshack.us/img141/496/3dmarkscorepz9.jpg

*img141.imageshack.us/img141/9025/4086graph1bc0.gif

Guys can you believe this

Compare the above two


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## Who (Nov 8, 2007)

well 8600 GT scores pretty high in 3d mark, can you post FPS result in games like oblivion, company of heroes etc on 1024 x 768 with AA (&without)(i am planning to use SLI too for minimal gaming), also i think SLI requires a more powerful PSU so it costs more in the longer run, also it reuires a SLI mobo which also cost some buck (not much though)


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## Harvik780 (Nov 8, 2007)

I am posting benchmarks in newer games like Call Of Duty 4 Demo,Crysis Demo,Unreal Tournament 3 Beta Demo,NFSPS demo and also lost planet with patch 1.4 in DirectX 10.Wait till midnight.
I don't have Oblivion and Company Of Heros.


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## Who (Nov 8, 2007)

that's all right, if they perform good in new games they should work very nicely in the old ones anyway thank you very much for your help harvik.


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## cynosure (Nov 8, 2007)

I think there is some error. your SLI config is showing to be better than all 8800 series cards at the one time (with 0 AF). Is this some joke or you have superclocked your cards?


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## Who (Nov 8, 2007)

cynosure i think those results are real , 8600 GT really do get very high scores in 3Dmark also all the other cards 8800GTS 320 MB overclocked ones except for the 8800 GTX , also i think the cards are not fully overclocked with some volt- modding you can overclock an 8600 GT upto 

 Core :- 760 Mhz+
 Shader:- 1720 Mhz +
 Memory: 900 Mhz+

 This clocks would even beat 8800GT in 3Dmark but it needs some pencil volt modding which can be risky but i myself am intrested in real world gaming tests.


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## assasin (Nov 8, 2007)

interesting stuff.was satisfied with my XFX 8600GT but didnt know that 2 8600GT in SLi wud beat the 8800GTS 320MB else i wud hav got another 8600GT and setup SLi.bad for me.


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## cynosure (Nov 8, 2007)

Gotta download 3Dmark06 and gotta overclock my 8600GT


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## Harvik780 (Nov 8, 2007)

I have tested three games now.m installing Lost planet now in x64 vista.Will post the benchmark results soon.

Edit : Here are the benchmarks

*
Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Demo
Resolution : 1280*720( 720p HD )
Settings : Maximum
FSAA : 4x
Filtering : Anisotrpic

2007-11-08 21:33:01 - iw3sp
Frames: 43430 - Time: 704399ms - Avg: 61.655 - Min: 29 - Max: 207

Crysis Demo
Resolution : 1024*768
Settings : HIGH DirectX9 ( Volumetric Clouds-Medium,Particles-Medium)
FSAA : None
Filtering : Game Controlled

2007-11-08 21:50:44 - Crysis
Frames: 5874 - Time: 213653ms - Avg: 27.493 - Min: 8 - Max: 45

Need for speed Demo test
Resolution : 1280*720( 720p HD )
Settings : Maximum
FSAA : 4x
Filtering : Anisotropic

Grip Race
2007-11-08 21:17:46 - nfsdemo
Frames: 8833 - Time: 191339ms - Avg: 46.164 - Min: 29 - Max: 78

Speed Challenge
2007-11-08 21:24:32 - nfsdemo
Frames: 6155 - Time: 145911ms - Avg: 42.183 - Min: 30 - Max: 68

Lost Planet DirectX 9
Resolution - 1280*720( 720p HD )
Settings - Maximum
FSAA - 4x
AF - 8x

Average FPS snow - 36.7
Average FPS cave - 50.3

Lost Planet DirectX 10
Resolution - 1280*720( 720p HD )
Settings - Maximum DX10 ( HDR medium)
FSAA - 4x
AF - 8x

Average FPS snow - 26.0
Average FPS cave - 35.3

*


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## Who (Nov 9, 2007)

harvik good news , you see crysis can't really take advantage of SLI right now also nvidia are still working on drivers optimized for crysis also crytek is working hard on optimizing the game & there is tweak guide out for crysis already which boosts some FPS of crysis so this all add up to one thing 8600 GT SLI will able to 1024 x 768 2x aa with most settings high in the near future


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## hahahari (Nov 11, 2007)

A friend of mine reported of getting 20-30 FPS for crysis at max setting in 1280*720 for a 8600GT ultra 512 [OC card].In vista btw


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## Stalker (Nov 11, 2007)

@ Harvik780

u probably are trying with the newer drivers.....while 8800GTS results might be with the older drivers


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## Harvik780 (Nov 11, 2007)

^^My brother gets 9630 in 3DMark06 with the 169.04 drivers.


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## cynosure (Nov 12, 2007)

hahahari said:
			
		

> A friend of mine reported of getting 20-30 FPS for crysis at max setting in 1280*720 for a 8600GT ultra 512 [OC card].In vista btw




Yeah baby, I got that card.


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## Harvik780 (Dec 10, 2007)

LOL my 8600GT OC SLI is the fastest system compared to similar systems.

*img155.imageshack.us/img155/1453/bench1mp8.jpg

*img155.imageshack.us/img155/7362/3dmarkscorenewyd9.jpg

I just ordered for Artic Cooling Mx-2 from theitwares.


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## naveen_reloaded (Dec 11, 2007)

Awesome info guys.. I have 8600GT and will buy another and sli if this is true


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## deathvirus_me (Dec 11, 2007)

Well , 3DMark score seems nice. . how many times have u played it ???


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## Harvik780 (Dec 11, 2007)

Well i have stress tested the cards a lot of times more than 5Hrs.Have tested a heck a lot of games and crysis was obviously most demanding even with the OC.Still waiting for the crysis patch.
Actually 3DMark is the best real world benchmark because it does not favor any card.Whereas crysis on the other hand favor's the 8800series.
I have ordered for a Arctic Cooling's MX-2 thermal compound and am thinking of increasing the clocks further by 40Mhz to get over 10,000.
The 8600GT is also not weak at AA and AF.I have tested the SLI setup and compared it to a single 8800GTS 640MB with 4x4AA and 8x4AF and it scored only 202 less with a score of 8294 at 1024*768.


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## darklord (Dec 11, 2007)

@ Harvik, have you personally done these tests ?
If yes i have some questions for you,
I see all Geforce 8 series cards there, then why was Radeon X1950XTX used ? Shouldnt we have 2900/2600 and so on ? for a fair competition ?
There are 2 more 8800GTS, care to mention whether they were 640MB or 320MB ?

Cheers !
Amey


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## Harvik780 (Dec 11, 2007)

No that comparison is pretty old and found it on some reviewer's site.
I have seen the latest comparisons with the latest drivers.
My brother scores 9690 with the same settings in 3D mark with a single 8800GTS 640MB with the latest drivers.

I haven't done those tests i just posted the benchmarks here for some games.

I would also like to mention that i am having problems even though i have installed the SLI hotfix's from microsoft for vista.

More
*img443.imageshack.us/img443/200/bench2kb1.jpg


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## darklord (Dec 11, 2007)

Ok cool !
Nice score there harvik 

Can we have some overclocked scores please


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## Harvik780 (Dec 11, 2007)

^^I scanned for artifacts using Artifact Tester 5 and Ati tool 0.26(Latest).There were no artifacts at all.I have overclocked the cards to 700Mhz Core/ROP domain and 1566Mhz Core/Shader Domain.The memory is overclocked to 860Mhz.
I am really interested in getting the Artic Cooling's MX-2 and see how much more i can go with that.

I also tested a lot of latest games.
Crysis
UT3
Gears Of War
Bioshock
COD4
NFSPS demo.


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## darklord (Dec 11, 2007)

Hmm, but could you post some scores ? 
Why i am asking is , i want to see how efficiently SLI scales with clocks.That would be interesting to see.
One suggestion,
While benching with overclocked cards, it will be a pain to keep both the cards cool, till the time you bench, you can keep 2 x 120mm high CFM fans over the 2 cards which will keep things cool.
This is possible only if you are benching on a benching setup and not if you have the PC assembled in a Case.
What do you use to OC the cards ?
Why not test what happens with CPU clocking too ? as in how much does SLI benifit from overclocking the CPU alone.


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## Harvik780 (Dec 11, 2007)

^^There you go
*img118.imageshack.us/img118/8917/8600gt002so4.jpg

The max OC with CPU i got was 2.8Ghz(primarily because of 667Mhz RAM)max OC on GPU without Artic Cooling MX-2 was 702Mhz/864Mhz/1566Mhz.
There's probably no way i can get an HSF cooler to fit in my SLI setup nor a passive cooler is available easily(even tried from matrix 3d LTD).Water coolers are probably hard to source here in India....found that after looking for Corsair nautilus 500(i guess).

Here are the test results including Scaling in SLI at different resolutions and Clocks.

*ROP-540/MEM-700/Shader-1188,Resolution -1024*768,CPU-2.8Ghz*
Score( Single ) - 6114      Score( SLI ) - 9896
Scaling - *1.619x*

*ROP-702/MEM-864/Shader-1566,Resolution - 1024*768,CPU-2.8Ghz*
Score( Single ) - 7432      Score( SLI ) - 11480
Scaling - *1.545x*

*ROP-540/MEM-700/Shader-1188,Resolution - 1280*1024,CPU-2.8Ghz*
Score( Single ) - 4861      Score( SLI ) - 8177
Scaling - *1.682x*

*ROP-702/MEM-864/Shader-1566,Resolution - 1280*1024,CPU-2.8Ghz*
Score( Single ) - 6018       Score( SLI ) - 9825
Scaling - *1.633*

*ROP-702/MEM-864/Shader-1566,Resolution - 1280*1024,CPU-2.33Ghz Stock*
Score ( SLI ) - 9225

The software i used for overclocking my GPU(s) was ntune because most other softwares currently only support experimental SLI overclocking support.I have downloaded ATI tool 0.27 Beta 4 and will overclock using it and show some more results.
Since my cards are not that big i already use two 80mm fans to blow directly at the GPU heatsink to keep things cool just in case.
As u can see we have some interesting results here.At higher resolutions with higher overclocking we get higher scaling in SLI,so SLI is pretty much for high res gaming.If u have SLI setup u would wanna game at resolutions over 1280*1024.
Also we can see that overclocking the CPU gave me a score jump of precisely 600.

With this setup i can play crysis at High with no tweaks at 1024*768 with 2x AA.


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## darklord (Dec 12, 2007)

Wow !! very detailed testing there harvik, good job !!

I am saying, keep a very high CFM 120mm fan next to the SLI bridge over the 2 cards, parellel to the board, will give you slight headroom for better clocks IMHO.
Also IF possible check if the thermal paste on the core is making good contact with the heatsink, most of the times i have found, it doesnt do it.AS5 will help you cool the card a bit.
I guess you are using the P5N-E SLI mobo for testing, its based on the 650i SLI chipset so you can run the RAM in unlinked mode which takes memory out of the OC equation and can push the CPU even more.
BTW, i hope you are cooling the PWN area with 80/120mm fan right ? If not, do that, keeping the PWM cool, helps in improving stability.


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## Harvik780 (Dec 12, 2007)

^^Thanks
I also wanted to install a 120mm fan but the problem is that its not available easily at my place.I'll be ordering for a 120mm fan from theitwares now.
Also the thermal pastes are definitely not properly applied by default.I have checked the thermal pasting on both the cards and they were a bit awwy,..very thin layer of paste on the core chip.I didn't play much though as i am waiting for my Artic Cooling's MX-2.
Well i tried the unlinked mode but i encountered problems running in unlinked mode.With Ram and processor linked orthos did not encounter errors for 5Hrs.
But as soon as I unlink the ram and processor i have problems passing the orthos test even when i set the clocks of the ram to lower values than 800Mhz and the processor is at 2.8Ghz.
I haven't played much though as i was looking for the sweet spot with both processor and ram and since this config does not have a cooler installed.
For the PWN area yes I have already installed an 80mm fan had to do a bit of modding though to install one.


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## assasin (Dec 12, 2007)

but my 3DMark06 results speak something different:

*img523.imageshack.us/img523/3544/3dmark06ow4.jpg


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## darklord (Dec 12, 2007)

^^ Arent you using an OC'ed Quad ? whereas he is using an OC'ed C2D.


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## Harvik780 (Dec 12, 2007)

Yup my processor is a bottleneck.U can make that by looking at the CPU score i have provided.
I again tried ocing my processor...set my ram to 667Mhz and processor to 3.0Ghz and the system did not boot.So its clear that EXX50 series is not a good overclocker.


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## assasin (Dec 12, 2007)

^^^  why dont u try ocing ur ram too?maybe it cud help oc the proccy.even i've oced my ram from 667 to 800MHz and its running perfectly stable.

also why dont u try with ur E6600.it sud easily oc to 3.6GHz at 1.41 vCore.


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## deathvirus_me (Dec 12, 2007)

.. or be satisfied at 3.0 GHz at 1.256V  ... anyway .. whatever it is , SLi is not good from any angle .. benchmark doesn't mean a **** anyway .. and in case a game doesn't support SLi properly , u're literally stuck with one card ...


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## Harvik780 (Dec 12, 2007)

assasin said:
			
		

> ^^^  why dont u try ocing ur ram too?maybe it cud help oc the proccy.even i've oced my ram from 667 to 800MHz and its running perfectly stable.
> 
> also why dont u try with ur E6600.it sud easily oc to 3.6GHz at 1.41 vCore.



I have already overclocked my Ram to 800Mhz.
I'll oc the e6600 sooner when i get hold of MX-2.



			
				deathvirus_me said:
			
		

> .. or be satisfied at 3.0 GHz at 1.256V  ... anyway .. whatever it is , SLi is not good from any angle .. benchmark doesn't mean a **** anyway .. and in case a game doesn't support SLi properly , u're literally stuck with one card ...


Most people who get SLI do not play all the games.They buy it for one particular game(s) which has good visual fidelity and obviously supports SLI.


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## go4saket (Dec 13, 2007)

Guys, what do you mean by SLI...
Moreover, I am planning to buy a XFX 8600GT for my system. Is this card going to support all the mordern games till now and will it work fine for the games supposed to be released in a year time...


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## Harvik780 (Dec 13, 2007)

^^SLI is nvidia's technology of improving 3D APP performance by using two similar Graphics crads simultaneously.
Don't buy 8600GT 256MB or 512MB its too weak even to run games that are currently available.If ur low on budget get and 8800GT 256MB for Rs 9K.Its a kicka$$ product for resolutions lower than 1280*1024.


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## juggler (Dec 13, 2007)

Harvik780 said:
			
		

> ^^SLI is nvidia's technology of improving 3D APP performance by using two similar Graphics crads simultaneously.
> Don't buy 8600GT 256MB or 512MB its too weak even to run games that are currently available.If ur low on budget get and 8800GT 256MB for Rs 9K.Its a kicka$$ product for resolutions lower than 1280*1024.



8800GT 256MB for 9k hmm what is the source for this price??


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## fun2sh (Dec 13, 2007)

one question guys!!! for SLI tech we need same graphic card or even two different graphic card wil also work together??? my cousin yesterday bought 8500gt in 4.5k though i told him to 8400gs coz it was cheap n he didnt wanted to invest in graphics card a lot.
n yeah he has bought a new config yesterday n givin us a headache. currently i m creatin a new thread related to problem


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## Harvik780 (Dec 13, 2007)

^^We need same Graphics Cards.


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## adithyagenius (Dec 14, 2007)

how much does the overclocking of DDR 2 ram affect overall performance?


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## x3060 (Dec 14, 2007)

5 to 10 percent thats all


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## darklord (Dec 14, 2007)

its hard to quantify the difference but memory plays a very important role in performance,thats for sure.


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## Harvik780 (Dec 14, 2007)

Overclocking my memory from 667Mhz(theo) to 800Mhz(theo) and overcloking processor and mobo FSB from 333Mhz to 400Mhz saw me increase my memory bandwidth from 6GB/sec to over 9GB/sec.
I tested the bandwidth using everest.


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## deathvirus_me (Dec 14, 2007)

:O 3 GBps increase ?? :O ... WoW ..


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## darklord (Dec 15, 2007)

Wow ! thats some increase ?
What were the timings ? 4-4-4-12 ? 5-5-5-15 ?
Command Rate ? 1T or 2T ? Linked or unlinked mode ?


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## Harvik780 (Dec 15, 2007)

4-4-4-12
2T.
Linked.


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## Harvik780 (Dec 17, 2007)

*img152.imageshack.us/img152/9867/10056onefp0.jpg

*img152.imageshack.us/img152/6678/10056twojv1.jpg

Overclocked my CPU to 3.29Ghz with ram linked 
The problem was that my secondary mobo P5N-E SLI doesn't like FSB between 400Mhz to 450Mhz.So i set my FSB to 470 and tested with orthos for one hour.Temps are well under control even with the stock cooler.
Memory timings 4-4-4-12.


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## darklord (Dec 17, 2007)

Nice going there Harvik


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## Harvik780 (Dec 17, 2007)

^^Thanks.


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## Harvik780 (Dec 18, 2007)

*img520.imageshack.us/img520/3717/8800gtssliscorelx4.jpg
That's my score with 8800GTS SLI.


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