Product Reviews

MSI's NX8600GT is the first card we've seen to use Nvidia's mid-range GeForce 8600GT graphics processor. It has the same 32 stream processors as the GeForce 8600GTS, but a slightly lower clock speed. However, this OC Edition of the card has been overclocked from the reference design's core speed of 520MHz to 540MHz. The 256MB of GDDR3 memory has also been overclocked from 700MHz to 800MHz (1.6GHz effective). The stream processors

The benchmark results were close to those we got from ECS's N8600GTS-256MX+, but that's not overly impressive. You need to turn off 4xFSAA and even turn down detail settings to get smooth games. Gaming at 1,600x1,200 wasn't possible in our test titles, and Call of Duty 2 fell to a stuttering 14.8fps when we tried.

The card has two DVI outputs and a TV-out (S-video and component) for connecting to almost any display. This card also draws very little power, so there's no need for a PCI-E power connector. Its single-slot design should appeal to those with small cases.

While ECS's N8600GTS-256MX+costs £150, the NX8600GT is just £92. If you want a DirectX 10-compatible card for future games and don't mind turning down detail settings, this is a good buy. But as DirectX 10-only games are unlikely to be the norm for at least another year, a Radeon X1950 Pro, which is only a little more expensive, is a better choice.