XFX GeForce 8600 GT Fatal1ty

For testing the 8600 GT Fatal1ty, we used an Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13GHz) on an Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI motherboard. We also used 1GB of Corsair DDR2 (TWIN2X1024A-5400UL) and a 120GB Maxtor SATA hard drive. The 8600 GT Fatal1ty was compared to an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT, NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT and an ATI Radeon X1950 Pro.

HotHardware Test System Intel C2D Powered

Performance Comparisons with 3DMark06 Details: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/

3DMark06

Futuremark recently launched a brand new version of its popular benchmark, 3DMark06. The new version of the benchmark is updated in a number of ways and now includes not only Shader Model 2.0 tests but also Shader Model 3.0 and HDR tests as well. Some of the assets from 3DMark05 have been re-used, but the scenes are now rendered with much more geometric detail, and the shader complexity is vastly increased as well. Max shader length in 3DMark05 was 96 instructions, while 3DMark06 ups the number of instructions to 512. 3DMark06 also employs much more lighting, and there is extensive use of soft shadows. With 3DMark06, Futuremark has also updated how the final score is tabulated. In this latest version of the benchmark, SM 2.0 and HDR / SM3.0 tests are weighted, and the CPU score is factored into the final tally as well.

In 3DMark06, the 8600 GT Fatal1ty impressed us by almost keeping up with the best performer in this test, the 7950 GT. The 8600 GT Fatal1ty easily outperforms the standard 8600 GT and even beats the X1950 Pro in two of the scores. These results made us eager to see how the 8600 GT Fatal1ty would perform in real-world tests.