Galaxy 8600GE Overclocking Experience

Overclocking/Overclocking Tests by massman @ 2007-11-12

A while ago yours truly had the opportunity to review Galaxy´s improved 8600 GT video card. It featured a new design and an extra power connector for higher overclocking. Today we push this card to limit at one of Belgian´s first overclocking LANs.

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Introduction

Introduction:

Let’s have a look at the conclusion our review:

Galaxy delivered quite an impressive product with the 8600GE which comes very close to the performance of the 8600 GTS card but at a lower price point.Taking into consideration that this card is build with overclocking in mind and features an extra 6-pin power adapter (unlike other 8600 GT cards) the reference speeds of the 8600 GTS can be matched easily with a slight overclock, the Coolermaster GPU cooling makes sure the video card runs cool and quiet. On average the Galaxy 8600 GE offers ~30% more performance out of the box compared to the stock 8600 GT, incidentally the price is also 30% higher, so it doesn’t offer a worse price/performance ratio, if anything, with the added overclocking potential it’s safe to say that the 8600GE is a 8600 GTS in disguise!

Madshrimps (c)


So we were already convinced of the power of this 8600GT. Looking at the rankings of the 8600 cards, we were quite sure a Top 5 spot wouldn’t be that difficult. That’s why we were extremely excited when Galaxy decided to give us the opportunity to modify their card and use it for some serious overclocking.

Tools:

Here we can sum up the same list Geoffrey used in his nVidia GeForce 8800 series overclocking guide.

- RivaTuner allows us to measure GPU temperatures, check GPU and memory speeds as well as shader clocks and of course overclocking. You can use Atitool for overclocking as well, but no tweaking options are available.
- Futuremark’s 3DMark application allows us to stress the GPU and check for system stability. Do not forget Aquamark if you’re aiming for HWBoints.
- GPUZ, W1zzards latest creation gives you all the information you need when overclocking. There’s even a validation possibility!
- Use Nibitor to edit the BIOS of NVIDIA video cards; which we can use to flash an altered BIOS with higher pre-overclocked values for GPU/MEM/SHADERS.
- Time to hook up that old floppy drive (or modify your USB stick) to boot into DOS, as flashing the video card requires a clean “DOS” boot. NVFlash is the application which can write the new BIOS to the video card.
- We won’t go into much detail on how you should solder, but show you where to solder what. To get up to speed and tune your soldering skills please refer to our soldering guide
- A multimeter, essential piece of equipment to check the voltages once we start increasing them.

Please note that this article gives you literature of an overclocking adventure with the 8600Ge, not an overclocking guide of how to tweak you card for 24/7 usage. If you want to read more about the overclocking process, please read Geoffrey’s article.

Madshrimps (c)
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