Zotac 8600GT Zone

Much like the 8500GT box, the 8600GT Zone package looks surprisingly well. Again, the box provides all the information needed for an "on-the-fly" purchase, something that most boxes fail to provide. The contents are pretty much the same, save for the DVI-to-VGA adapter that is not needed on the 8500GT.

We have reviewed several 8600GT cards here at DriverHeaven, and so far not one of them followed the reference design. While some used the reference cooler but ran at higher speeds others chose to use a custom cooler design and overclock the card. The Zotac 8600GT is the closest we have come to reviewing a reference 8600GT, as other than using a passive cooler the card follows nVidia’s specifications. This means a 540MHz GPU core (1190MHz shader processor) and the 256Mb of GDDR3 memory running at 700/1400MHz. The memory modules are manufactured by Hynix and bear the HY5RS123235 serial number.

Looking at the cooler it is apparent that a lot of thought went into designing it. If you remember our XFX Fatal1ty 8600GT review you will remember that their design used up a lot of space. The 8600GT Zone cooler on the other hand takes up only one slot, which makes it an excellent candidate for multimedia PCs.

No surprises when looking at the connectors located on the card. The two dual DVI ports and the TV-Out connector are standard fare. As with the 8500GT the card is capable of streaming audio over the DVI port, so together with the HDMI adapter the card can deliver a full HDMI signal.