Company Of Heroes

Resolution Comparison

In Company Of Heroes (DirectX 9 render path), the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT ran best at 1024 x 768 or 800 x 600. At those resolutions, it delivered a frame rate of over 40 fps and 55 fps respectively. At 1280 x 1024, it managed a respectable 29.7 fps, which was more or less 30 fps. That was as fast as the NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT running at 1920 x 1200.

At the higher resolutions of 1600 x 1200 and 1920 x 1200, the GeForce 8600M GT didn't fare quite so well. It only delivered a frame rate just above 21 fps and 16 fps respectively. That was just a tad slower than the GeForce 7600 GT at the same resolution.

Anti-Aliasing Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT handled 2x AA with almost no loss in performance. Switching to 4x AA cut the frame rate by 21 %. Do note that these cards were all tested at 1920 x 1200. At the lower resolution of 1024 x 768, enabling 2x AA or even 4x AA would not be a problem for the GeForce 8600M GT.

Like its desktop equivalent, the GeForce 8600M GT actually supports 8xQ AA but that anti-aliasing mode is really too stressful for this mobile GPU, sapping the frame rate by 62.5 % from no anti-aliasing.

DirectX Comparison

Switching from the DirectX 9 render path to DirectX 10 saw a massive drop (50-70 %) in frame rate for all graphics cards in the comparison. The NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT suffered a massive 64 % drop in frame rate at 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768. It dropped slightly to 60 % at 1280 x 1024 before going back to 64 % at the higher resolutions.

Overall, its DirectX 10 performance was abysmal, even at the lowest resolution of 800 x 600. What this means for gamers is the GeForce 8600M GT's DirectX 10 support is completely worthless in Company Of Heroes. Fortunately, you do not need to run Company Of Heroes in DirectX 10.