Testing The GeForce 8600M GT
Testbed (Desktop)
Processor |
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 |
|
Motherboard |
ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium |
|
Memory |
Two G.Skill 1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 memory modules |
|
Graphics Card |
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT |
|
Hard Drives |
120GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA hard drive |
|
Operating System |
||
Power Supply |
Mushkin 580W PSU |
Testbed (Notebook)
Notebook |
Dell Inspiron 1520 |
|
Processor |
Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 |
|
Memory |
2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM |
|
Graphics Card |
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT |
|
Hard Drive |
40 GB Hitachi Hard Drive |
|
Operating System |
The Graphics Cards
Graphics Card |
Core Clock |
Memory Clock |
Memory Bus Width |
Driver |
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT |
742 MHz |
825 MHz |
512-bits |
ATI Catalyst 7.10 |
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT |
600 MHz |
900 MHz |
256-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 169.01 Beta |
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS |
675 MHz |
1000 MHz |
128-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 169.01 Beta |
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT |
540 MHz |
700 MHz |
128-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 169.01 Beta |
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT |
475 MHz |
400 MHz |
128-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 101.43 |
ATI Radeon X1950 GT |
560 MHz |
700 MHz |
128-bits |
ATI Catalyst 7.10 |
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT |
550 MHz |
700 MHz |
256-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 169.01 Beta |
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT |
560 MHz |
700 MHz |
128-bits |
NVIDIA ForceWare 169.01 Beta |
Testing Methodology
We tested exclusively in Windows Vista, with the latest updates. We chose these four games for benchmarking :
- Company Of Heroes
- F.E.A.R.
- BioShock
- Supreme Commander
Company of Heroes was originally a DirectX 9 game but was later upgraded with a DirectX 10 render path. In fact, it was the first game to support DirectX 10. It does not have a true in-game test, but uses a graphics-intensive cut scene for the benchmark.
F.E.A.R. is an older DirectX 9 FPS (first-person shooter) game. Although a little dated, it is still a good way to evaluate the performance of graphics cards in DirectX 9.
BioShock is a new first-person shooter game that supports both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10. It is a very graphics-intensive game and will serve well to really stress the graphics card.
Supreme Commander is a new DirectX 9 real-time strategy game. It is a very CPU-intensive game and will serve well as an example of a CPU-limited game.
All games were tested at 1920 x 1200 at 16x AF and no AA, unless stated otherwise. A minimum of 5 test runs were performed at each setting. The three closest results were taken and averaged to obtain the final frame rate. If the test results varied too much, the entire test was repeated.
Game Settings
Game |
Version
|
Resolutions
|
Settings
|
Company
of Heroes |
2.102.0 |
1920
x 1200 1600 x 1200 1280 x 1024 1024 x 768 800 x 600 |
Shader Quality : High Model Quality : High Texture Detail : High Shadows : Medium Reflections : High Post Processing : On Building Detail : High Physics : High Tree Quality : Medium Terrain Detail : Medium Effects Fidelity : Ultra Effects Density : High Rain Detail : High Object Scarring : On Model Detail : Medium |
F.E.A.R. |
1.08 |
1920
x 1200 1600 x 1200 1280 x 1024 1024 x 768 800 x 600 |
Physics : Medium Effects Details : Maximum Light Details : Maximum |
BioShock |
1.0 |
1920
x 1200 1600 x 1200 1280 x 1024 1024 x 768 800 x 600 |
Windowed Mode : Off Vertical Sync : Off Shadow Maps : On High Detail Post Processing : On High Detail Shaders : On Real Time Reflection : On Distortion : On Force Global Lighting : Off Graphics Quality : High Actor Detail : High Texture Detail : High |
Supreme Commander |
1.1.3269 |
1920
x 1200 1600 x 1200 1280 x 1024 1024 x 768 |
Fidelity Presets : High Background Image : On Render Sky : On Fidelity : High Shadow Fidelity : High Texture Detail : High Level Of Detail : High Vertical Sync : Off Bloom Render : On |