BFG 8600 GTS OC ThermoIntelligence

The Card

While at first glance the card looks very similar to your standard run of the mill air cooled 8600GTS the different fan placement and slightly different shape of the cooler lets us know that it is indeed different.

While the cooler isn't exactly all that fancy looking it's simply designed to do a job and do that job well. Sure there is some fancy writing and a funky flame design but it's nothing like some of the aftermarket coolers we have seen from other companies. Simple is good though and as long as it works this single card cooling solution should be perfect.

With the cooler taking up the majority of the card there isn't a whole lot more to the card when looking face on. If you move to the right of the card we have with us the PCI Express power connector that is found on all 8600GTS cards and the top gives us the trusty SLI connector.

The I/O side of things paints a pretty standard picture as well; we have our dual dual-link DVI connectors along with the TV-Out port. The card is of course a nice thin single width setup and apart from the unique cooler it's pretty standard to the normal run of the mill 8600GTS.

The standard 8600GTS comes clocked in with a core/memory speed of 675MHz/2000MHz. The model we have here today comes with an increased core of 710MHz but carries the same 2000MHz memory clock. If you want to get a bit more on the wild side you can jump to the OC2 model which carries with it a higher core/clock speed that weighs in at 720MHz/2220MHz.

ThermoIntelligence Cooling

The main design behind the whole system when compared to the stock HS/F cooler from NVIDIA is "more". BFG pack more aluminum fins into the heatsink to help get the heat off the plate. More copper is also used to help dissipate the heat better and more power to the fan is used for it to spin faster and of course cool better.

Does it all work though? There really is only one way to find out so let's jump into the benchmarks and see how we go.