Gainward Bliss 8600GT Goes Like Hell Edition

Don’t worry, you haven’t pressed back instead of next – the box of the Goes like Hell edition card looks remarkably like the one of the 1024Mb card. The main difference is the huge sticker located on the front, marking the card as a Golden Sample board. The contents are pretty much the same as before, with two noticeable differences. The first is the addition of a second DVI-to-VGA adapter and the second one is the Molex-to-PCI-E power converter.

“PCI-E power?!” you say!? We were scratching our heads about that one for a bit as well, until we realized that the card actually has a PCI-E power connector installed. As you all know 8600GT cards don’t require extra juice, so we were pleasantly surprised that Gainward decided to not only overclock the card and provide speedier memory modules, but actually ensure that there was still enough power delivered to the card. We tried using the card without plugging the PCI-E power cable in and everything actually worked, though as we found out later the overclocking capabilities of the card dropped significantly.

We could play spot the difference here, but we’ll make it easy for you and note down all the key changes from the 1024Mb card you saw on the previous page. Gone are the memory coolers on the back side (no surprise since there are no modules there on this card) and the cooler is a bit thinner. To make up for that the fan is considerably bigger, ensuring more airflow for both the GPU and the memory.

And judging by the GPU set at 621MHz the larger fan is more than welcome. The shader clock is surprisingly set at 1458MHz, just like on the 1024Mb card. It is the memory that makes this card considerably faster than the “larger” sister – the 256Mb of HYB18H512321BF-10 modules runs at 900/1800MHz, making it almost twice the rated speed. The best part? These modules are rated at 1000/2000MHz, which makes them excellent overclockers (this is also a nice change from other companies which often use cheaper modules and then overclock them beyond their specifications).

A reference to the previous page would have worked here, but just to refresh your memory: two Dual-DVI and a HD capable TV-Out connector. Notice the aggressive red color of the connectors, which is present on this card as well.