Currently the average Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT graphics card retails for around $120 US, where as the slightly faster 8600 GTS cards are available at around $170 US. Although the 8600 GT is the cheaper option of the two, it can often provide users with a far better value solution when overclocked. While the 8600 GTS does come with a 25% greater core clock and the memory does operate 43% faster, we have found that in many cases the 8600 GT can almost reach GTS speeds.

Given that the GeForce 8600 GT is relatively easy to overclock, manufacturers quickly began shipping pre-overclocked versions at a slight price premium. Some of the faster versions ran the memory at 1600MHz with a 600MHz core which saw significant performance gains. This is a reasonable overclock from factory as the core is now 11% faster and the memory 14% faster. However, today we have another GeForce 8600 GT graphics card that features factory overclocking with an upgraded cooling solution from Inno3D. The Inno3D iChiLL 8600 GT XStriker3 features a 620MHz core clock with a memory frequency of 1800MHz!

This means that the Inno3D iChiLL 8600 GT XStriker3 is running the core 15% faster than the official Nvidia specification, while the memory is 29% faster. This is a very impressive overclock from Inno3D and while it will boost performance, will it be enough to ignore the GeForce 8600 GTS? There is just one concern we have for the iChiLL 8600 GT XStriker3 when compared to the normal Inno3D GeForce 8600 GT. The XStriker3 version costs around $155 US while the standard version costs just $120 US, which is the typical asking price for a GeForce 8600 GT graphics card.

Essentially what this means is that gamers are paying around $35 US more for the luxury of owning a pre-overclocked product. However I believe that most users are more than capable of overclocking the graphics card, so what else does the iChiLL 8600 GT XStriker3 have to offer us? This is something we will explore on the next page when we look at the iChiLL 8600 GT XStriker3 in a little more detail. This product gets its “XStriker3” naming from the cooler that it uses. Inno3D also offer products using Arctic-Cooling and Zalman heatsinks in the iChiLL series. The XStriker3 is a little more aggressive looking as it covers a large majority of the graphics card.

Clearly Inno3D wishes to strengthen their position in the graphics card market and this is a huge step in the right direction. However they have made just one mistake and a crucial mistake at that, their entire range of iChill graphics cards, which includes 20 products, all feature green PCBs! Now we know that nobody likes the old traditional green PCB, so why use it? Particularly given that they modified the card to feature a black I/O bracket with gold DVI connectors.

Furthermore the upgraded cooler has also been given a black coat of paint with a white fan. Why bother with all this if you are going to leave the PCB green. The iChiLL 8600 GT XStriker3 would have looked menacing with a black PCB for example! Anyway, at the end of the day it is just a PCB colour and what is important is how the iChiLL 8600 GT XStriker3 performs...