Leadtek WinFast 8500 & 8600GT with HDMI

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: Forceware 169.09 and Catalyst 6.11

With both Leadtek HDMI offerings in hand, we have strapped it up against the HD 2600 XT 512MB Super model from Palit. We have run a cut down version of our benchmarks which is normally seen in the Catalyst round up, though we have the inclusion of our normal Sound, Temperature and Power tests.

We have also only benched up to 1600 x 1200 due to the cards being of the mid to low-end variety.

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.

Straight away we can see the passive cooled 8500GT is not a quick card and sits way back compared to the other two offerings. We do see the 8600GT and HD 2600 XT quite close though.