Overclocking

After spending a goodly amount of time kicking clocks up and down looking for a sweet spot we finally rested at 773MHz for the core and 1195MHz for the memory.  This represents a 68MHz and a 145MHz boost to the GPU and RAM respectively.  Loading up STALKER at playable settings one more time let's have a go and see what this boost does for us.

Minimum 8600 GTS iChill - 29  /  Minimum 8600 GTS iChill OC - 31
Maximum 8600 GTS iChill - 97  /  Maximum 8600 GTS iChill OC - 109
Average 8600 GTS iChill - 56  /  Average 8600 GTS iChill OC - 60

Some advantage gained but nothing Earth shattering.  But an average 4 fps increase in STALKER does say a lot as you have seen that a VGA card has to earn every frame there.

Conclusion

Inno3D has a nice DirectX 10 option for the market with its 8600 GTS iChill card.  Silent operation and solid performance for a $200 midrange product.  The XStriker3 cooler does a nice job of cooling.  I say nice as it is adequate but I feel that more can be had from the 8600 GTS with a more robust cooling assembly.  But it should be noted that I say that in the context of brute force cooling.  The XStriker3 operated silently which is not always common in VGA cards.  We mentioned earlier about the slits in the shroud, Inno3D's "Air Boost Technology."  Using an ultra high tech testing method, we measured the card's temperature via its onboard sensor before and after we placed Scotch tape over the slits.  Under load, temperature was detected at 85' Celsius with the slits open or closed. 

A load temperature of 85' C is a big attention getter, especially since this warm air is not being blown out of the case.  There will not be pockets of stagnate air within the case with this increased pressure but the case's ambient temperature cannot help but rise.  We intend on doing a follow up piece to this review swapping the cooler with some other units to get an idea of exactly how much difference this makes in the end.

In the end with what we have here, we find that the Inno3D GeForce 8600 GTS iChill brings a lot to the table.  Anyone on a budget within the $200 sweet spot needs to look no further.  Yes, the GeForce 7900 GS outperforms the 8600 GTS for the same price if not a hair cheaper, but what about six months from now?  The difference in performance isn't much between our two test cards (BF2142 excluded) and certainly not enough to justify writing off DX10 support in favor of a few frames.  Add in the compact size of the card and its silent operation (HTPC owners heard those two), and Inno3D ends up with a well rounded and well priced product on their hands with their GeForce 8600 GTS iChill.

Pros

• Very good performance

• Quiet fan operation

• Excellent image quality

• Standard sized card

• DirectX 10 Ready

• Very good overclocker

• SLI Ready

• Nice price for performance ratio

• Dual gold plated DVI

Cons

• No outside exhaust means higher case temperatures