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NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS vs NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS

► remove from comparison NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS is the DirectX 10 capable successor of the GeForce Go 7600 / 7700 for laptops and technically a higher clocked 8400M GT.. The performance is slightly above the 7600 / 7700 and therefore it can represent current games fluently. For DirectX 10 effects, the power of the card is not sufficient. Current demanding games like Crysis are only playable with the lowest settings.

8600M is one of the first-laptop-GPUs, which support DirectX 10 and accelerate the H.264-decoding of HD-movies. In comparison the the 8600M GT the GS version features less video options. > PureVideo Product Comparison

The particularity of this video card are the "Unified Shader". Pixel- and vertex-shaders do not exist any more but 16 of the so called stream processors do the graphic work (which up to now pixel- and vertex shaders did).

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI

► remove from comparison NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI

The NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI are two single DirectX10 capable 8600M GT graphic cards in SLI combination. Depending on the particular games, the combination is about 0-60% faster than one single graphic card. DirectX9 games can be played with higher resolutions and high details fluently (if SLI is supported). DirectX 10 games are very demanding (e.g. Crysis and World n Conflict) and can't be played in highest DirectX 10 detail levels fluently, at moment. Perhaps, that will improve by later driver optimizing.

The 8600M is one of the best laptop-GPUs worldwide, which support DirectX 19 and H.264-decoding and accelerate HD-films.

A particularity of the graphic card are the "Unified Shaders" of ALUs (Arithmetic Logical Unit). There don't exist any more dedicated pixel- and vertex shaders but 32 so called Stream processors maintain the upcomming graphic work (which was done by the pixel and vertex Shaders, up to now). The advantage is that there is no idle time of the ALUs. The Stream processors of NVIDIA are 1-dimensional (1D) and can make one skalar operation per cloc with a MADD operation (addition and multiplication) and a MUL-operation (multiplication). Moreover, NVIDIA clocks the Shader-ALUs higher than the remaining chip.

The memory clock of each GeForce 8600M GT of the SLI combination depends on the implemented memory type: 400 MHz with GDDR2 and 700 MHz with GDDR3.

Compared with dektop graphic cards, the 8600M GT in SLI combination of the GDDR3 laptop version is scarcely below two 8600 GT SLI (each desktop card has a higher chip clock).

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GSNVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI
GeForce 8600M Series
GeForce 8600M GT SLI 64 @ 0.48 GHz128 Bit @ 700 MHz
GeForce 8600M GT compare 32 @ 0.48 GHz128 Bit @ 700 MHz
GeForce 8600M GS 16 @ 0.6 GHz128 Bit @ 700 MHz
GeForce 8600M GT SLI 64 @ 0.48 GHz128 Bit @ 700 MHz
GeForce 8600M GT compare 32 @ 0.48 GHz128 Bit @ 700 MHz
GeForce 8600M GS 16 @ 0.6 GHz128 Bit @ 700 MHz
CodenameG84MNB8P-GS
ArchitectureG8xG8x
Pipelines16 - unified64 - unified
Core Speed600 MHz475 MHz
Shader Speed1200 MHz950 MHz
Memory Speed700 MHz700 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit128 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR3, GDDR2GDDR3, GDDR2
Max. Amount of Memory512 MB1024 MB
Shared Memorynono
APIDirectX 10, Shader 4.0DirectX 10, Shader 4.0
Power Consumption20 Watt20 Watt
Transistors289 Million598 Million
technology80 nm80 nm
FeaturesShader Taktfrequenz 1200 MHz, PureVideo Technologie (H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, WMV9 Decodierbeschleunigung), HDCP-fähig, PowerMizer 7.0 Energieverwaltung (dynamisches umschalten zwischen Leistung und Energiesparen), HDR (High Dynamic-Range Lighting), designed für Windows Vista, 16x Vollbild AA, 16x winkelunabhängiges AF, 128-Bit HDR Ausleuchtung mit AA, Dual-Link DVI Ausgänge für Auflösungen von TFT bis zu 2560x1600, PCI-E 16x, OpenGL 2.1, Gigathread TechnologieTwo single graphic cards in SLI combination, Shader clock frequence 950 MHz, PureVideo technology (H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, WMV9 decoder acceleration), HDCP-capable, PowerMizer 7.0 energy management (dynamic switching between performance and energy saving), HDR (high dynamic-range lighting), designed for Windows Vista, 16x full image AA, 16x AF independent on angles, 128-bit HDR illumination with AA, Dual-Link DVI exits for TFT resolutions up to 2560x1600, PCI-E 16x, OpenGL 2.1, Gigathread technology

Notebook Sizemedium sizedlarge
Date of Announcement09.06.2007 23.10.2007
Link to Manufacturer Pagewww.nvidia.dewww.nvidia.de
Informationmemory clock: DDR2 - 400 MHz
DDR3 - 700 MHz

Benchmarks

3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX
1665 Points (1%)
3DMark 2001SE - 3DMark 2001 - Standard
min: 14876     avg: 17194     median: 16193 (17%)     max: 21027 Points
26684 Points (28%)
3DMark 03 - 3DMark 03 - Standard
min: 5897     avg: 7593     median: 7459 (4%)     max: 10427 Points
21150 Points (11%)
3DMark 05 - 3DMark 05 - Standard
min: 2684     avg: 4412     median: 4593 (5%)     max: 6379 Points
12932 Points (14%)
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Score Unknown Settings + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
3DMark 06
min: 2069     avg: 2529     median: 2652 (3%)     max: 2743 Points
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
3DMark 06
min: 2507     avg: 3028     median: 3027.5 (4%)     max: 3548 Points
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI
6614 Points (9%)
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x800 + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
3DMark 06
min: 2830     avg: 2854     median: 2854 (4%)     max: 2878 Points
3DMark 06 - Standard 1152x864 + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
3DMark 06
min: 1554     avg: 2236     median: 2332 (3%)     max: 2823 Points
3DMark 06 - Standard 1024x768 + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
3DMark 06
2360 Points (3%)
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280X854 + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI
3DMark 06
7050 Points (9%)
Windows Vista Experience Index - Windows Vista Leistungsindex - Grafik (Spiele)
5.3 Points (78%)
Windows Vista Experience Index - Windows Vista Leistungsindex - Grafik
5.9 Points (87%)
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit)
min: 2888     avg: 3132     median: 3131.5 (2%)     max: 3375 Points
Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) + NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI
3231 Points (2%)

Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS → 100% n=5

Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI → 210% n=5

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation

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 detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Crysis - GPU Benchmark

Crysis - GPU Benchmark

2007
low 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
42.7  fps
123%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
52.6  fps
med. 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
14.5  fps
148%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
21.5  fps
high 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
7.9  fps
162%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
12.8  fps
Crysis - CPU Benchmark

Crysis - CPU Benchmark

2007
low 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
38.1  fps
143%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
54.4  fps
med. 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
14.3  fps
184%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
26.3  fps
high 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
7.4  fps
152%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
11.3  fps
World in Conflict - Benchmark

World in Conflict - Benchmark

2007
med. 1024x768
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
37  fps
high 1024x768
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
16  fps
Command and Conquer III

Command and Conquer III

2007
high 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
20  fps
F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R.

2005
low 640x480
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
72 213 278 286 334 368 479 ~ 290 fps
72%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
208  fps
med. 800x600
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
54 69 70 79 80 81 169 ~ 86 fps
35%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
30  fps
high 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
14 25 32 52 53 68 68 ~ 45 fps
64%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
29  fps
Doom 3

Doom 3

2004
low 640x480
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
90.3 94.2 115.2 117.2 126.1 129.9 131.6 140.2 164.6 ~ 123 fps
130%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
159.8  fps
med. 640x480
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
61.3 90.5 102.5 114.7 116.4 125.9 134 140.4 158.1 ~ 116 fps
138%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
160.5  fps
high 800x600
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
61.3 64.9 94.7 98.2 101.1 103.4 104.2 107 150 ~ 98 fps
158%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
154.9  fps
ultra 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
34.9 37.4 63.1 64.2 64.6 66.7 71.8 81.1 123.6 ~ 67 fps
207%
GeForce 8600M GT SLI:
138.4  fps
Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo

Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo

1999
high 1024x768
100%
GeForce 8600M GS:
275.3 292 316.8 341.3 363.6 ~ 318 fps

Average Gaming NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS → 100%

Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 100%

Average Gaming NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI → 132%

Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 133%

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GSlowmed.highultraQHD4K
Crysis - GPU Benchmark42.6714.487.89
Crysis - CPU Benchmark38.1114.267.43
Command and Conquer III20
F.E.A.R.2908645
Doom 31231169867
Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo318
< 30 fps
< 60 fps
< 120 fps
≥ 120 fps

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NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLIlowmed.highultraQHD4K
Crysis - GPU Benchmark52.621.512.8
Crysis - CPU Benchmark54.426.311.3
World in Conflict - Benchmark3716
F.E.A.R.2083029
Doom 3159.8160.5154.9138.4
< 30 fps
< 60 fps
< 120 fps
≥ 120 fps

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