Gigabyte 8600GTS 256MB Silent Pipe 3

[Rob Williams]

Building a silent PC or on the look-out for a quality mid-range graphics card offering? Gigabyte's 8600GTS includes the best of both worlds. In addition to including a passive cooler, a free copy of Supreme Commander can be found here also. Of course the important question is: Does the overall performance warrant your attention?

You can read the full review here and discuss it here.

 

[Merlin]

Nice review, But I would of liked to see temp differences since this was a pipe cooler.
I'm using the little brother ( 8600 GT ) in SLI and the temps hover around 54*C and 58*C using the stock air cooler and ambiet air temp of 26*C

Merlin

 

[Rob Williams]

I did not have an 8600GT in, so I really couldn't compare temperatures. Ideally, having another 8600GTS in and comparing it would be the test to perform.

 

[Unregistered]

Heatsink

One thing I often see omitted from reviews is whether the heatsink touches the ram. In most cases it does not, I assume because the HS is designed solely around cooling the core.

It would be nice if the HS were designed to cool the ram also. It would provide an option to OC the ram and core with a nice quiet 120mm fan. At least put some kind of spreader on the BGA's, even if it has to be independent of the core HS.