Nvidia 8600M performance, general discussion

Update 7/11/07 : 5-10 FPS INCREASE WITH NEW DRIVERS (162.18)
- I updated the drivers and whatever fps I've told you I've or see on the screenshots has been increased 5-10 with new drivers. There is also better contrast when I play CS: S (when you try to shoot at someone in the distant). Basically it made everything a little easier to see which is important. I'll post 3dmark06 scores later.
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I know that the 8600m GT is going to be a very popular card so I figured that I'd make this thread (inspired by http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=131334) for the people are interested in a notebook with this graphics card. I would describe this as a great card for playing older system demanding games like f.e.a.r.

I'll be posting more screenshots when I have the time.

Setup
Model: Asus S96S
GPU: nVidia 8600m GS w/256MB (Up to 1 gig of turbo cache)
CPU: T7100 (1.8 ghz) C2D Processor 2MB Cache
RAM:2 Gigs of DDR2 667mhz (2 x 1 gig)
OS: Windows XP Professional SP2

The video card is clocked at 500 core/400 memory (I'm guessing it's gddr2 then?).

In these screenshots I used the stock driver and the stock clockspeeds.

Counter-Strike: Source

These are the settings used for the stress test:


Results:


These are settings that I like to play with. There's no problem playing with these settings. Notice how full hdr is on. In the next SS de_Dust will be shown in HDR. The SS doesn't do justice to show how amazing the lighting looks at times during gameplay. Because of HDR, the fps went down to the 30's. It was still very playable. I was also playing music in winamp, running bitcomet, aim, and firefox (I hope that all of that didn't affect the fps).














Now, HDR is off. I'm playing in a death match server and you can see the fps go up. This is the typical fps you will see playing in filled up servers and it stays pretty consistent but usually higher into the 60's.



F.E.A.R. Multiplayer Demo

All max settings except shadows are turned off and AA is at 2x.





Stress Test Results:

 

Here are a few gameplay screenshots. Sorry that the fraps FPS wasn't there (didn't realize like the FPS overlay screenshot option was off). I was getting abotu 40 fps and it was very playable and intense.







Far Cry

Settings:
All set to very high (texture filter keep switching back to medium).

 

Sorry again about the lack of the FPS display, I didn't realize that wouldn't be in the screenshot because the overlay feature wasn't on. Without AA on high I got 50~ fps. With AA set to high I got 35-40~ fps.













I will add more games and screenshots later. Others can feel free to contribute. Also sorry about the size of these screenshots =x

 

Thanks for the screenies. Keep them coming! That is a pretty powerful card judging from those shots, not that I would expect otherwise.

On another note, Far Cry is an awesome game, looking at your screenshots does two things for me.

1) It makes me want to play Far Cry
2) It makes me things about Crysis............I can't wait

Thanks for the screenies!

 

What drivers are you using?

 

the ones from the samsung site (which is apparently the same as the one from the intel-asus site) for windows xp. The reason why I wanted to use from the samsung site is because i thought there was something wrong with the asus one, but i guess i was wrong.

forceware version: 101.19
6.14.11.0119

 

Thank you for the far cry screenshots!! looks awesome.. Feel like getting it.

 

Oblivion

system : ASUS F3SV with 2GB RAM

settings
resolution : 1024 x 768
AA : 4x
screen effects : bloom
Distant landscape
distant buildings
distant trees

- No Shadows

 

The 158 drivers work better than the 101's.

 

@MD screenshots are for the most part pointless with no fps showing. Because quality isnt a consern its how fast the card runs at those quality settings.

A geforce 4400 from the 1900's can give good screenshots ;P

You did remind me however that I need to try out farcry with the 64bit patch.

 

that's why i told people the fps i got in fear (but I forgot to mention far cry). In Far Cry I averaged 40-50 fps with AA OFF. When I turned AA to high, I averaged 28-40 FPS. Both settings were very playable, but it's best to set AA on low for less lag during fire fights.

 

did you get them from the nvidia site, and in what ways did it work better? I want to get the best possible drivers for this card so fill me in with some instructions on what to do please =p. I know how to install the drivers using have disk etc. I'm also using windows xp.

 

That's awesome the card I just got with my HP was a Geforce 8400M GS. Should perform just as well.

 

uhm bladestriker.. the 8400m gs wont perform anywhere near as well as the 8600 gs. just to let you know.

 

Oh, yeah I know, but still a lot better then my desktop thats for sure.

 

anyone know if this card if on the dell 1720 will use the system memory to boost graphics preformance?

 

It does if it needs extra video memory. I consider this a feature on newer model cards, it was pretty much a bust before.

 

it is one of the things that my decision is hinging on i would reather ahvea computer with the 1gb (256 dedicated+768 in ram) vid power then just 256 dedicated.

 

A member got their Sager 2090 with 1 gig of ram and it showed his 8600gt with 512mb dedicated and up to 767 with turbo cache, and when he added a second gig of ram it then listed it to 1279 total with turbo.

I know the Asus G1S version uses turbo also.

 

anyone have a definite YES or NO on this? >.<

 

Yes, although it probably won't increase performance by a lot.

 

If you want to know if the 8600gt card uses it, YES. If you want to know for sure if the Dell you are going to buy that noone else has yet uses it, beats me but I would say PROBABLY.

 

those dont look like max on stalker :/ but the fps is pretty good, infact its pretty close to what I get on my desktop I think.

 

i dont know. even i didnt think the graphics were as good. Especially after playing FEAR the day before.

there were no GPU / CPU settings like what FEAR had.

just had options for medium, high , maximum, etc.. Chose Maximum and got this

 

It doesn't look too shabby!

Maybe I should get that dv9500t now...except I think I should wait for Penryn.

 

I think the game lacks in the graphic department.

even the screenshots here arent that impressive
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/480/480467/imgs_1.html

 

Hey guys... not really a screen shot but just wanna let you know I think I hit a new 3dmark06 record.. check the pic. I am still experimenting with my clock speeds.



I'm going to rerun all of my games using these new drivers and I'll repost the pictures on this thread. Even though it's a synthetic benchmark and real world results may be different, it looks like the 700 MHZ clocked 8600M GS is on par with the 400 MHZ clocked 8600M GT (compal, sager, acer, dell... all laptops except G1S/G2S and maybe c90) in terms of synthetic benchmark.

 

I'm sorry, a small question, what is the differnce between this card and the on for the XPS M1330?
I mean these screenshots are really nice.

So I was wondering if the XPS M1330 can have pictures like this?

 

minxshin

how did you do that? wowwww

 

For Stalker, graphics aint its highlight.

Moreover turning down dynamic lighting and switching to static results in a lot of difference in the graphics too.. But its a real performance killer!

 

i got new drivers from laptop2go and it has improved my fps in certain games (check my first post). Not only that for some reason my idle temp has drop to a low of 61 C (the low before was 66 C , but was 68 C most of the time).

 

the samsung R70 has the GDDR3 8600gs

 

I'm not sure which laptops have their memory clocked at 700 mhz.. but if you do, you should be able to reach those scores....

 

Just received my 1720 today, and I can confirm that the video memory is shared. It has 256mb dedicated, with 511mb total available graphics memory (I only have 1gb of RAM while I wait for my 2gb sticks to arrive from Newegg).

 

hey biggrich76, did you check to see if the video is gddr3 yet?

 

can someone check my build to see if it would be a gaming laptop


My Components
SYSTEM COLOR Jet Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition edit
DISPLAY High Resolution, glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1920 x 1200) edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8600M GT edit
MEMORY FREE! 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz edit
HARD DRIVE FREE! 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) edit
OPTICAL DRIVE CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive) edit
WIRELESS NETWORKING Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-Card edit
BLUETOOTH OPTIONS Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR) edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM No Webcam Option edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell) edit
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition


i feel as if it is a good system, but i will wait for your replys

 

I'd get the lower resolution, it will help the most when playing games if thats what your looking for, that what I opted for and I haven't had second thoughts, but then again I don't have my laptop yet...

 

Romules, that resolution is REALLY high for an 8600gt to power. If you plan on playing your games at 1920 x 1200 you are better off waiting for a more powerful video processor, because those will fit in 17" laptops and provide the necessary power.

Personally, I would never get a resolution that high on a 17" screen because it would kill my eyes. I'd recommend lowering the resolution or waiting till there are more powerful video cards available, especially since you are choosing a 17" which will probably hold one.

 

the 8600gt will die under 1920x1200


that resolution will be limited by

1) 128 bit bus

2) gddr2 ram

if you want to game, go with a lower native res screen or move to the 1520

games look horrible on lcd when not native res

 

I just ordered my new Dell, same specs as yours, but in a 15.4 screen model

 

It's gonna be sick

 

wow...on par with the 8600gt's
very impressive

 

hey guys, if you were choosing between laptops that had identical insides other than the video card and they were either the 8600gs or the go 7600 which would you pick?
when i looked at http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-8600M-GS.3707.0.html
and
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-Go-7600.2144.0.html

i was surprised to see the 7600 got a higher score?! is this correct? is the go7600 really better than the 8600gs for gaming?

you guys know more than i do!
please help
thanks!

 

the 8600gs is best

 

8600m GS got 2743 in 3DMark06.
7600 got 1900 in 3DMark 06.
[Scores from your links, maybe you got mixed up.]

2743 > 1900. So, the 8600 > 7600.

 

okay, not i feel lame, haha, thanks for helping me out guys, so i think i am going to go ahead and buy that laptop, it turns out it is the Asus S96S Notebook
and it is going to be from http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/ntbkx55900.asp?v=d and named the Xplorer X5-5900 notebook. I was reading the laptop review here on this website and it sounds good, i was just wondering if you guys knew any further information about it. I am worried that it might be loud because the processor is fast and the video card is so good. the only reason I am worried is because I am currently using a pro-star 4034 laptop with a Pentium 4 3ghz processor with the ati mobility 9700 in there. these fans are soooooo annoying! many people have told me that the new core 2 duo processors are great at heat expulsion and therfore they don't need very powerful fans = quiet. has this been your guys' experience?
Is it a safe bet that this laptop will be quiet?....... and awesome?

 

you came to the right conclusion but your logic is flawed.

take 3dmark with a grain of salt- especially across generations of tech.

 

^^ Yeah you're definitely right about that. I just wanted to point out that the original poster possibly mixed up their info by misstating:

The only test the 7600 scored higher than the 8600 was 3DMark01 which is, in my opinion, worthless and irrelevant.

When it comes to gaming and graphic cards you really want judge a card by in-game performance. And there is plenty of information on both cards if you look around a bit - this is the information I actually used in my logic. It remains, the 8600m GS is better than the 7600.

 

Better. Good < Better < Best