Notebookcheck

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT is the DirectX 10 capable successor of the GeForce Go 7600 GT for laptops. Depending on the used graphic memory and the clock speed,  the performance is between the 7600 GT and 7900 GS video card. Therefore, games like Company of Heroes, Supreme Commander, or F.E.A.R can be played fluently with high details in a resolution of 1024 or similar. Still, the shader power is not sufficient to display DirectX 10 effects of games like Crysis fluently (Crysis will only run well in low details).  Gamers, who every time expect supreme frame rates, should get at least a 8800M card.

The 8600M series is one of the first-laptop-GPUs, which support DirectX 10 and accelerate the H.264-decoding of HD-movies.

The particularity of this video card are the "Unified Shader". Pixel- and vertex-shaders do not exist any more but 32 of the so called stream processors do the graphic work (which up to now Pixel- and vertex shaders did).

The memory clock speed depends on the used memory: 400 MHz for GDDR2 memory and 700 Mhz for GDDR3 (which is noticeable faster).

The integrated PureVideo engine is one of the advantages of the 8600M GT. It supports (HD) encoding of H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, and WMV9 video content. Compared to the slower 8600M GS (and 8400M series) the 8600M GT supports a few more video features (see comparison chart).

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce 8600M Series

GeForce 8600M GT SLI 64@475MHz

GeForce 8600M GT 32@475MHz

GeForce 8600M GS 16@600MHz

CodenameG84M
Pipelines32 - unified
Core Speed *475 MHz
Shader Speed *950 MHz
Memory Speed *700 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR3, GDDR2
Max. Amount of Memory512 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 10, Shader 4.0
Current Consumption20 Watt
Transistors289 Million
technology80 nm
FeaturesShader clock frequence 950 MHz, PureVideo technology (H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, WMV9 decoding acceleration), MPEG2, WMV9 decoding acceleration), HDCP-capable, PowerMizer 7.0 power management (dynamic switching between performance and energy economizing), HDR (High Dynamic-Range Lighting), designed for Windows Vista, 16x full screen AA, 16x AF independent of angles, 128-Bit HDR illumination with AA, Dual-Link DVI-D exits for resolutions of TFT up to 2560x1600, PCI-E 16x, OpenGL 2.1, Gigathread technology
Notebook Sizemedium sized
Date of Announcement09.06.2007
InformationSpeichertakt (Vorgaben): DDR2 - 400 MHz
DDR3 - 700 MHz
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_860...
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 2001 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 13417     avg: 22071 (50%)     max: 28050 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 5244     avg: 10215 (18%)     max: 13515 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 4279     avg: 6175 (26%)     max: 8078 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 2671     avg: 3347 (18%)     max: 4434 Points
Windows Vista Experience Index - GPU
0% 100%
min: 4.5     avg: 5 (70%)     max: 5.9 Points
Windows Vista Experience Index - GPU Games
0% 100%
min: 5.2     avg: 5 (77%)     max: 5.4 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 2100     avg: 3207 (41%)     max: 5230 Points
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Crysis - GPU Benchmark
Crysis - GPU Benchmark (2007)
low:
50.8 40.3 43.8 50.3 ~ 46 fps      Compare
med.:
17.6 18 18.6 19.6 20 ~ 19 fps      Compare
high:
7.6 8.7 9.8 10.1 10.1 ~ 9 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Crysis - CPU Benchmark
Crysis - CPU Benchmark (2007)
low:
34.8 42.9 46.8 51 ~ 44 fps      Compare
med.:
14 15.3 18.3 19 19.9 ~ 17 fps      Compare
high:
7.2 8.6 9.4 10.1 10.7 ~ 9 fps      Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
World in Conflict - Benchmark
World in Conflict - Benchmark (2007)
med.:
27 29 ~ 28 fps      Compare
high:
11 14 ~ 13 fps      Compare
» With most tested laptops not playable.
Command and Conquer III (2007): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. (2005)
low:
34 102 112 211 222 231 250 270 270 283 284 286 291 299 302 303 306 311 342 383 423 ~ 263 fps      Compare
med.:
29 29 29 29 30 30 32 32 55 88 96 98 98 101 101 102 109 112 114 127 127 ~ 75 fps      Compare
high:
13 24 25 25 26 27 28 28 28 29 30 30 31 31 31 36 36 37 43 44 73 ~ 32 fps      Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
World of Warcraft (2005): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings med.. - more...
Doom 3
Doom 3 (2004)
low:
96.7 106.4 107.1 111.9 115 119.8 132.5 132.5 135.5 141.3 142.3 145.5 149.7 150.2 151.8 153.9 167.3 169 ~ 135 fps      Compare
med.:
97.5 103.8 111.9 113.2 113.8 118.3 121.9 123.2 125.8 126.1 126.4 127.8 130 133.6 143.7 150.2 150.5 170.8 ~ 127 fps      Compare