Inno3D GeForce 8600 GTS iChill

Manufacturer: Inno3D
Supplied by: Inno3D
MSRP: $199.00

by Dean Barker  (6/20/2007)

Introduction

Graphics card companies know that the real competition is at the $200 price point.  With there being so many factors involved at present, the competition for that dollar is hotter than ever.  The big question mark for many users with this question is Vista.  Vista is here and with it DirectX 10; end of discussion.  But as we all have seen, Microsoft Vista has not caused the mass exodus away from Windows XP that Redmond had hoped for.  The changeover for all of us is inevitable but it will be a slow trickle rather than Noah's flood.  The question mark specifically resides in game titles written for DirectX 10.  Yes they are coming but they're not here yet, so do you drop your upgrade dollar on some DX9 pixel pushing WinXP muscle or hedge a bit and take care to future proof your upgrade for DirectX 10 and Vista?  To shed a bit of light on this today we have an Inno3D GeForce 8600 GTS iChill card on the review bench side by side with a slightly dated product in the same price range, a GeForce 7900 GS.  The 7900 GS is not DX10 ready but has plenty of power for today's titles.  The 8600 GTS can handle titles of today and just as importantly tomorrow's too.

Aside from the $200 question we already posed, we also want to look at the Inno3D card and see what separates it from the rest of the field.  The big thing right off is that the Inno3D card is offered in iChill trim.  iChill is Inno3D's signature selection of higher end cooling models that makes these products much more performance oriented.  The iChill XStriker3 we have today is a copper heatpipe/aluminum finned cooler assembly that offers a performance balance between that of raw cooling performance and silence.  So let's start out with the specs and a closer look at Inno3D's XStriker3 equipped GeForce 8600 GTS.