Midrange graphics benchmarks
The XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX is the fastest-clocked G84 in this round-up. Knowing that fact allows us to infer that it will perform slightly better than the other two GeForce 8600 GTS cards, and that's exactly what we see in Far Cry.
Note, however, just how much faster lower-priced - at around £100 - the two DX9 cards are.
All cards put up decent performances in our Quake 4 netdemo test. Still, though, the pure horsepower of £100 DX9 cards is hard to ignore.
Things look up in the shader-heavy Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. The XFX card manages a smooth 60FPS.
Raising the resolution and adding in HDR shows an insight into where a superscalar architecture can be. Remember that the XFX XXX Edition costs around 60 per cent more than, say, the ASUS X1950 Pro.
