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 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).
Two 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
Shader 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
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI → 100%n=6
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT → 62%n=6
- 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.
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- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
