Test System Setup

Processor(s): Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3GHz (333MHz x 9)

Cooling: Corsair Nautilus500 (Supplied by Corsair) with Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (Supplied by Arctic Cooling)

Motherboard(s): ASUS Blitz Extreme (Supplied by ASUS)

Memory: 2 X 1GB Corsair XMS3 DDR-3 1066MHz 7-7-7-21 (Supplied by Corsair)

Hard Disk(s): Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM SATA-2

Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2, Windows Vista

Drivers: Catalyst 7.9 and Forceware 162.18

HDMI performance between the two cards is quite difficult to tell apart. They are both very capable of outputting a clean digital signal to your TV. The PureVideo HD technology is also excellent at handling HD content so when vs UVD it isn't really a deciding factor. What it's really going to come down to is 3D performance.

We have placed the HD 2600 PRO Sonic from Palit with HDMI along with a stock clocked 8600GT purely for comparison. If you want to get a bit more power out of your HDMI card is it worth looking at the 8600GT offering from NVIDIA? Well let's have a look through our benchmarks which cover all gaming aspects along with both Windows XP and Vista.

3DMark05

Version and / or Patch Used: Build 130

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark05/

Buy It Here

3DMark05 is now the second latest version in the popular 3DMark "Gamers Benchmark" series. It includes a complete set of DX9 benchmarks which tests Shader Model 2.0 and above.

For more information on the 3DMark05 benchmark, we recommend you read our preview here.

As you would expect the 8600GT has a nice little jump on the HD 2600 PRO and the increased clocks from the TwinTech offering make it again a little faster than the stock 8600GT.