Overclocking
Both cards use the same cooling system, so unless it is really efficient the external power connector shouldn’t make much of a difference on the GLH card. Like with our previous reviews we used RivaTuner to overclock both cards, ensuring that we knew what all of the clock settings were (including the shader clock).
8600GT Goes like Hell
| |
GPU Clock |
Shader Clock |
Memory Clock |
| Stock |
621MHz |
1458MHz |
900/1800MHz |
| OC |
716MHz |
1620MHz |
1020/2040MHz |
8600GT 1024Mb
|
GPU Clock |
Shader Clock |
Memory Clock |
| Stock |
594MHz |
1458MHz |
500/1000MHz |
| OC |
675MHz |
1620MHz |
558/1116MHz |
The extra juice the GLH card was receiving via the PCI-E power line gave us the opportunity to overclock the card a bit further than the 1024Mb card. With a better cooler we could have probably gone even further, as above 716MHz it wasn’t the voltage irregularities but the temperature that was causing instability.
Overclocking both cards let the 1024Mb board surpass the stock GLH sister and come pretty close to its oveclocked results. With a better cooler installed on the 8600GT GLH things would have been different, as we probably could achieve at least another 30-40MHz on the core and probably some additional increases on the memory clock as well. As it is though the faster memory of the GLH allowed it to stay in the lead.
