NVIDIA 8600GT and 8600GTS Pictured

[sxs112]

Replace the 7600GT,G84-300 GPU 540MHz and 128-bit GDDR3 RAM(128MB or 256MB) at 1400MHz ,Price 150~180



Replace the 7900GS ,G84-400 GPU 675MHz and 128-bit GDDR3 RAM (256MB or 512MB) at 2000MHz ,Price 200~250

techpowerup

[FischOderAal]

just wanted to post the same :p

the cooler of both cards are quite tiny and out of Aluminium, so it looks like the don't need that much energy

[G.Foyle]

It seems like 8600 GT's PCB has lots of unused space, so it will probably be available in low-profile version.

[CedricFP]

Am I mistaken in believing that the 8600GT is likely to be getting '05 scores in the area of an X1900XT?

[jbizzler]

Bet 8600GT will be great for physics.

[squilliam]

you sure? I dunno. It looks like it wont throw much more weight than the 7600GT.

[Wiggy McShades]

shouldn't the 8600gts have a 256bit interface if its using the same pcb as the 7900gs ?

[Frank M]

shouldn't the 8600gts have a 256bit interface if its using the same pcb as the 7900gs ?

It's replacing the 7900GS in the price/performance ladder, but it is still a G84
built on the 7600-series pcb, with 128bit ( ). The 8900GS will have 256bit
IIRC/if teh sources are right.

[Starscream]

shouldn't the 8600gts have a 256bit interface if its using the same pcb as the 7900gs ?

were does it say it uses the same pcb as the 7900gs?

it only says that it will replace the 7900GS in Nvidias lineup

[Baron]

Cheap DX10 thrills. 8600GTS doesnt look that bad if you are on a small budget.

[Soulburner]

Cheap DX10 thrills. 8600GTS doesnt look that bad if you are on a small budget.

It supports the API but won't have enough power to push it in a truly next-gen game, as with all budget cards.

But hey, at least "DX10" makes it looks good on paper to the guys who walk in to Best Buy not knowing any better paying $299 for them.

[falqon]

They are not built on 7000 series PCB's. You can't put a chip on a PCB designed for totally different chip.

I don't know that the PCB is identical, but there was a pretty big thread on this a month or so ago, I think there was some indications that Nvidia is planned to share a lot of the PCB as a cost saving implementation.

It supports the API but won't have enough power to push it in a truly next-gen game, as with all budget cards.

Yeah, I hate it when Nvidia does that, the 256meg Geforce 5200 comes to mind. DX9 with barely enough power to run the DX8 path of any game designed 2 years before it. And no possible way to turn up the graphics high enough to utilize all of that RAM.

[Starscream]

Yeah, I hate it when Nvidia does that, the 256meg Geforce 5200 comes to mind. DX9 with barely enough power to run the DX8 path of any game designed 2 years before it. And no possible way to turn up the graphics high enough to utilize all of that RAM.

they both do it (nvidia and ati)
its partialy to sell cards to those idiots that think the amount of RAM is the most imporant bit on a grafix card.

[[LCN]Knowledge]

they both do it (nvidia and ati)
its partialy to sell cards to those idiots that think the amount of RAM is the most imporant bit on a grafix card.

That's right mate. I know a lot of people that still think the amount of ram is what matters in a Videocard

[[XC] hipno650]

i will be interested to see how these perform with only 128bit but i might step up a 7600gt to the 8600gt without much of a cost hit. even with the 128bit i think the 8600gts will out do the 7900gt and maybe trade punches with the 7900gtx and 1900 series after you oc it a bit.

[Timmay]

i think the 8600gts will out do the 7900gt and maybe trade punches with the 7900gtx and 1900 series after you oc it a bit.

I would agree with this.

[G.Foyle]

They are not built on 7000 series PCB's. You can't put a chip on a PCB designed for totally different chip.

[Wiggy McShades]

They are not built on 7000 series PCB's. You can't put a chip on a PCB designed for totally different chip.

those look identical to the 7000 series pcbs.

[Frank M]

They are not built on 7000 series PCB's. You can't put a chip on a PCB designed for totally different chip.

Of course it's modified, but the gpus are pin-compatible; with the pcbs being
similar, they could ramp production quickly.

[G.Foyle]

Of course it's modified, but the gpus are pin-compatible; with the pcbs being
similar, they could ramp production quickly.

How do you know they are pin-compatible?

[Sentential]

How do you know they are pin-compatible?

Because nVidia has said so themselves. If you wanna get right down to it, these chips have been "pin-compatible" since the release of the 6600 series.

How do you know they are pin-compatible?

$250 for a 128 bit card??

someone send me some of whatever the Nvidia Marketing departments smoking, cause I bet I could make a fortune selling it here in alaska.

no 256 bit cards?

thats a HUGE mid range performance gap to leave open.
I mean, top cards are 384 and 320 bit, and mid range to low range only 128 bit??

if they really do ignore the mid range so much, then this leave a huge gap for ATI to come in with a successor to the X1950 pro, which is already a 256 bit card for the mid range, and do some major damage to Nvidias market share.

low to mid range products outsell high end products by like 10 to 1 or something crazy like that.
if Nvidia leaves such a obvious gap in performance potential open, I hope ATI jumps all over it. they need all the help they can get these days (AMD that is)

I agree but then again, these rumors coming from non-legit places tend to be highly innacurate. I remember not too long ago when people swore up and down claiming that the 8900 series was going to be released soon. Infact I was laughed at when I insisted they didnt exist. My guess is that just like the 8900 series, these card's pricing is incorrect.

I wouldnt be at all suprised if nVidia leaks information like this to see what the public reacion would be and they change their prices accordingly, thats pretty typical in terms of pricing tactics.

I will say this however, if it is infact 128bit RAM, it had better be high speed GDDR3 or GDDR4 to offset the loss of birate. There's no way a 1.3ghz 128bit ram chip on any mid range card is going to hack it. It will have to be atleast 2ghz otherwise ATi will just make a card that uses GC20 or GC16 @ 256bit (which I assume is the same price as the higher end 128bits) and simply slaughter the nVidia offerings.

edit:
if the 8600 really is 128bit it will most likely be done to lower production costs. Im guessing they are waiting with 256bit mid-end until they can make chips on 65nm.

Oh no no, that has nothing to do with it. I can promise you the reason they are using 128bit ram is because they are afraid that the card is powerful enough that when given 256bit RAM it can match the peformance of many of the higher end cards at lower resolutions (say 1076/768 etc).

If a card half the price of their main ones is capable of doing that for I'd say 99.9% of their customers it would be a simple decision as to which card they are going to buy, ie *not* the 8800 @ $400 or the cutdowns at $250-300. By handicapping the RAM significantally it puts enough distance between it and the 8800s to justify people purchasing them over their crippled cousins.

In terms of sales a 256bit card with that kind of GPU would be disasterous to their high end modles. The only way they are going to make a true cutdown like the 7900GS is at EOL when they are trying to clear inventory at any cost.

[[XC] hipno650]

if you actually read the first post you will see that the 8600gts does have 2ghz mem . so the bandwidth should not be TO bad but still not enough.

[xlink]

They are not built on 7000 series PCB's. You can't put a chip on a PCB designed for totally different chip.

just like how you can't place a s939 Athlon x2 in a s939 athlon 64 board....

[squilliam]

How can you have 512mb of ram if you have a 128bit interface???
to my understanding, you can't...

[xlink]

How can you have 512mb of ram if you have a 128bit interface???
to my understanding, you can't...

how can you have 512mb with a 64 bit interface?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814141054


the capacity of the ICs has relatively little to do with the MC controlling them.