ECS GeForce 8600 GT 256MB

Factory Overclocking and Passive Cooling

This article is quite brief. It is, so to speak, a mini-review of a rather peculiar graphics card. It draws attention, because despite being marked '8600 GT' it operates at increased frequencies. Mind you, its shader unit works at a whopping 1566 MHz! And as you know, an overclocked 8600 GTS card has shader unit working at up to 1440 MHz. This fact alone makes this graphics card very attractive. In addition, it has a noiseless passive cooling system, which is another peculiar feature.

I assume that there is no need to remind you here again what GeForce 8600 GT or GTS is, since the information can be found in one of our previous reviews. We have already devoted a couple of articles to examining similar graphics cards.

Almost every regular visitor of our site is familiar with products by ECS/Elitegroup. This year the company celebrates its 20th anniversary. I am not going to focus on quality or other characteristics of their graphics cards, because basically it's quite ordinary. I might only add that the company had used its own facilities to manufacture the card reviewed in this article. This is contrary to a popular method of outsourcing production to third-party plants, which makes it hard to tell whether a company actually had anything to do with the manufacture.

Graphics card

ECS GeForce 8600 GT Overclocked Passive cooling 256MB

GPU: GeForce 8600 GT (G84) Interface: PCI-Express x16 GPU operational frequency (ROPs/Shaders): 620/1566 MHz (nominal - 540/1188 MHz) Memory operational frequency (physical (effective)): 866 (1732) MHz (nominal - 700 (1400) MHz) Memory bus width: 128bit Number of vertex processors: - Number of pixel processors: - Number of multipurpose processors: 32 Number of texture processors: 16 Number of ROPs: 8 Dimensions: 170x100x32 mm (the latter value - maximum thickness of the graphics card). Board color: blue RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into the GPU. Output sockets: 2xDVI (Dual-Link), TV-out. VIVO: none TV-out: integrated into the GPU. Multiprocessor support: SLI (Hardware).

ECS GeForce 8600 GT Overclocked Passive cooling 256MB
The card has 256 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM memory, which is comprised of 4 microchips on the front side of PCB. Samsung (GDDR3) memory microchips. Memory microchips have access time of 1.1 ns, which corresponds to a clock rate of 900 (1800) MHz.

Comparison with reference design, front view
ECS GeForce 8600 GT Overclocked Passive cooling 256MB	Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Comparison with reference design, rear view
ECS GeForce 8600 GT Overclocked Passive cooling 256MB	Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

As we have expected, the product being considered has almost the same design as the reference card. Let me stress it again, the card operates at increased frequencies for such cards.

The card has a TV-out interface, which requires a unique connector. In order to output to a TV with via S-Video or RCA, one has to use special adapters that are supplied with the card. You can find more information about the TV-out socket here.

In order to connect to analog monitors with d-Sub (VGA) one has to use special DVI-to-d-Sub adapters. Maximum resolutions and refresh rates:

• 240 Hz Max Refresh Rate
• 2048 x 1536 x 32bit x85Hz Max - via analog interface
• 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz Max - via digital interface (all DVI-sockets with Dual-Link support)

In regards to the graphics cards' abilities to play MPEG2 (DVD-Video), we have explored the issue back in 2002. Not much has changed since then. Depending on the movie the load on the CPU doesn't exceed 25% during playback using modern graphics cards.

Speaking of HDTV and other hot video gizmos, we have already conducted one examination, and its results can be found here.

Let us remind you that graphics cards based on 8600 GT don't require an additional power supply.

Let's take a look at the cooling system.

ECS GeForce 8600 GT Overclocked Passive cooling 256MB
The cooler has no fan and consists of two parts: a small closed heatsink of the front side of the card, and a big plate heat sink on the board's reverse side. Both parts are linked with heat pipes. They are used to transfer heat from the front heatsink to the rear one. Basically, there is nothing new here. We have examined such systems many times before.

We have conducted thermal behavior tests using RivaTuner (by A. Nikolaychuk AKA Unwinder) and have obtained the following results:

Tests have shown that the temperature of even such an overclocked card doesn't exceed the critical value and stays below 75 degrees C.

This fact once again demonstrates the effectiveness of such a cooling system.

Bundle

ECS GeForce 8600 GT Overclocked Passive cooling 256MB
The package is rather scarce. There are no bonuses, except stickers. The box contains a user's manual, disk with drivers, composite output adapter, and a DVI-to-VGA adapter.

Box

ECS GeForce 8600 GT Overclocked Passive cooling 256MB

The box has rather bright colors and huge inscriptions. It has a glossy cover over a white box made of thick cardboard. Inside the card is safely secured in a corresponding internal compartment. Notably, the box has no indications that it contains a special overclocked 8600 GT model with a passive cooler. The only difference from the standard 8600 GT box is the much bigger size (width of about 8 cm).