The Card

The board is typical sized for a "normal" video card and comes with a one slot cooling solution.


The back of the card is fairly standard, the only interesting thing I saw here is that two sets of mounting holes are present so the range of installable coolers is bigger, allowing manufacturers to pick from a wider range of cost effective heatsinks.


The two DVI ports of the GeForce 8600 GTS are dual-link capable, so you can use them on any CRT/LCD up to a resolution of 2560x1600. If you have a CRT or older TFT with only analog VGA, one DVI adapter is included in the package. Both ports carry the VGA signal, you can use both ports for VGA out with a second DVI adapter .


Even though a power connector is required, this card is not extremely power hungry. It is just that once a card needs more than 75W it must have an external power connector.


All GeForce 8600 boards have support for SLI using an internal bridge to connect the cards. This ensures that all data can be transferred in a timely and secure fashion.