MSI's passive 8600GTS

They make noise, too.

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Mr Evil
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MSI's passive 8600GTS

Post by Mr Evil » Thu Apr 26, 2007 3:02 pm

I have just gone through an upgrade cycle, and this time I thought it would be a good idea to try to optimize power consumption. On the graphics card side, the new 8600GTS looked like a good bet, and it just so happens that MSI make a passive one. There is exactly zero infomation on this card around, but it seemed a fairly safe bet anyway.

Unfortunately I had to replace my entire system to accomodate the change to socket AM2, DDR2 and PCIe, so I can't do any meaningful benchmarks, but there are plenty of general 8600GTS benchmarks out there anyway.

But that's not the most important thing anyway; what I'm interested in is how hot it gets (a reflection of both the effectiveness of the heatsink and the card's power consumption), and here are some numbers:

Code: Select all

Idle:
Ambient:    21ºC
Case:       29ºC
GPU:        46ºC

Load:
Ambient:    21ºC
Case:       29ºC
GPU:        51-57ºC
"Ambient" is the temperature of the air in the room. "Case" is the temperature of a sensor somewhere on the motherboard. "GPU" is the temperature as reported by nVidia's monitoring utility.

Idle temperatures were measured when just browsing the web. Load temperatures were measured after running UT2004 for a while. Load temperatures fluctuated up and down a lot, mostly not going above 54ºC except for one peak of 57. The heatsink was quite warm to the touch.

The card runs at the standard speed of 675MHz core, 1000MHz memory.

The case has two 80mm intake fans run at 7V, an 80mm top exhaust fan run at 5V, a rear 80mm exhaust fan that's supposed to be temperature controlled but I haven't set that up with the new mobo yet (seems to run at about 1200rpm right now), plus a 120mm temperature controlled fan in the PSU which didn't seem to go very fast during testing. The 70mm CPU fan runs at full pelt due to the mobo not yet being able to read the temperature from Brisbane CPUs (AMD changed the way temp. is reported, apparently), but it doesn't point at the graphics card and so should not make much difference.

Pretty good overall, considering that I get better performance than my old 6800GT, which ran up into the 70s with a Thermalright V1-ultra with 7V fan.

But this is just all boring facts and stuff, when pretty pictures are more fun (click to enlarge):

Image
The above picture shows that it's a single-slot card - unless you have a slot above the graphics card perhaps.


Image
Here you can see the size of the radiator part. It sticks out over the end a bit, making the card slightly longer than it would otherwise be, but it's still reasonably sized.


Image
Underneath. The heatsink is very solidly constructed, mostly from aluminium, with a copper baseplate that covers both the GPU and RAM. The only downside is that the heatpipes are bare copper, which means that acidic fingerprints must be kept well clear to avoid unsightly stains!

Alex
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Post by Alex » Thu Apr 26, 2007 5:22 pm

Thank you for the MSI 8600GTS pictures. :D
I have always wondered how the heat sink looked like.

I have a hard time to decide between,

Gigabyte
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA ... uctID=2512
The Gigabyte is more expensive here in Sweden but It might be bundled with a game. Previously Gigabyte has gotten good temperature results on passive cards compared to others. Silent Pipe III Technology
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/News/VGA/New ... ewsID=1325
Note that it has air intake on the backside of the computer case.

MSI
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func ... d_no=1197#
It has cooling on the backside. =Nearer the already hot cpu cooler.
On the other hand it is not designed to specifically have cooling air intake from the back of the case. =Consistent front -> back airflow possible, also dust filters in front of case is still useful then.

Powercolor X1950 PRO DX9.0c card (256-bit bus instead of 128 for the above cards)
http://www.powercolor.com/global/main_p ... asp?id=161
The last card is not more expensive than the others and significantly more powerful i guess (future DX10 games might not be playable though). The high S1 Accelero cooler on it will probably be extra effective and convenient if you want to mount a 120 mm fan on it. Also it consumes more power (generates more heat) than the cards above.
=Consistent front -> back airflow possible, also dust filters in front of case is still useful then.
Arctic Cooling has impressing heatsinking solutions. http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vgapartners1.php
No support for 8600GT(S) yet though.

Which one would you buy?
Last edited by Alex on Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mr Evil
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Post by Mr Evil » Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:11 pm

Alex wrote:...The Gigabyte is more expensive here in Sweden but It might be bundled with a game...
I normally buy OEM versions as I'm not bothered with bundled games, but there were no OEM versions of the MSI card for sale, so I can tell you that it comes with "Company of Heroes". No idea if it's any good or not.

I did consider the Gigabyte card, but I couldn't find it for sale here, plus I didn't really want anything sticking out the back of my case.

As for the better performance of the x1950 pro: In many of the benchmarks I have seen, the 8600GTS is competetive and even a bit ahead sometimes. When it's behind, it tends to be by a huge margin, which makes me suspect there may be driver issues that may improve with time. It might therefore be worth waiting a while for more reviews if you're not in a hurry... or it might just be that the 8600GTS is held back by the narrow memory bus or something.

Also, if the X-bit labs measurements are accurate, the 8600GTS uses quite a bit less power than the X1950 pro (and just about everything uses far less than the ridiculous 8800 series).

Alex
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Post by Alex » Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:21 pm

Ok!
I will probably buy the MSI card then.
Thank you Mr Evil. :D
You helped me a lot.

Now I wonder if I should wait a month for the new ATI 65nm cards instead?
Last edited by Alex on Wed May 16, 2007 11:47 am, edited 5 times in total.

Sylph-DS
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Post by Sylph-DS » Fri Apr 27, 2007 1:47 am

Dyou reckon the MSI comes with a DVI to VGA adapter? My monitor doesn't have a DVI input :(


Edit: My bad, it's on that very page, it does in fact come with an adapter.

Techno Pride
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Post by Techno Pride » Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:28 am

is that PCI-E slot the uppermost slot? I'm interested to know if that MSI card and a Scythe Ninja will fit together

Mr Evil
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Post by Mr Evil » Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:11 pm

Techno Pride wrote:is that PCI-E slot the uppermost slot? I'm interested to know if that MSI card and a Scythe Ninja will fit together
There's space for another slot above it, but there's nothing but capacitors there on my motherboard (I haven't seen many ATX boards that use that slot). The heatsink sticks out approximately 32mm from the back of the card.

rei
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Post by rei » Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:19 pm

CoH is 2006's Real-Time-Strategy game of the year.

christopher3393
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Post by christopher3393 » Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:31 pm

The Gigabyte cards come with Supreme Commander.

Can't find reviews on these passive cooled G80 series cards yet.

klankymen
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Post by klankymen » Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:18 pm

maybe a strange question, but could you measure how high the card is? I'm wondering if it would fit into a NSK-2400, and trying to decide between it and the passive 8600GT from gainward

Mr Evil
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Post by Mr Evil » Sat Apr 28, 2007 4:53 am

klankymen wrote:maybe a strange question, but could you measure how high the card is? I'm wondering if it would fit into a NSK-2400, and trying to decide between it and the passive 8600GT from gainward
"Height" is a bit ambiguous, but I assume you mean the distance between the PCIe edge connector side and the SLI connector side (since I mentioned the other possible height previously): The heatpipes stick out approximately 12mm from the edge of the card. This is good for me, since the previous V1-ultra heatsink I had required that I cut a hole in the side of my case to fit it in, whereas this one has plenty of room to spare.

openwheelformula1
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Post by openwheelformula1 » Sat Apr 28, 2007 8:52 am

I wonder if I could buy this heatsink directly from MSI....

christopher3393
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Post by christopher3393 » Sat Apr 28, 2007 1:52 pm

I found a couple of reviews: 1 on Gigabyte 8600GTS and one on the 8600GT http://my.ocworkbench.com/2007/gigabyte ... 56D/g1.htm

http://extremeoverclock.org/review-giga ... ipe-3.html

Temps. are tested in both and look good.

klankymen
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Post by klankymen » Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:05 pm

Mr Evil wrote:
klankymen wrote:maybe a strange question, but could you measure how high the card is? I'm wondering if it would fit into a NSK-2400, and trying to decide between it and the passive 8600GT from gainward
"Height" is a bit ambiguous, but I assume you mean the distance between the PCIe edge connector side and the SLI connector side (since I mentioned the other possible height previously): The heatpipes stick out approximately 12mm from the edge of the card. This is good for me, since the previous V1-ultra heatsink I had required that I cut a hole in the side of my case to fit it in, whereas this one has plenty of room to spare.
thanks for that, but one more question. how high is the card from the PCI slot cover (the part where the screw goes into)?

Mr Evil
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Post by Mr Evil » Sat Apr 28, 2007 7:04 pm

klankymen wrote:thanks for that, but one more question. how high is the card from the PCI slot cover (the part where the screw goes into)?
It's a bit difficult to measure that directly now that it's installed, but the edge of the card sticks out about 5mm from the end of the backplate, plus the 12mm that the heatpipes stick out from that, ~= 17mm in total.

m33s
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Post by m33s » Mon Apr 30, 2007 6:20 am

I am intered to buy this card and the Asus p5b deluxe wi-fi-ap and i not sure they are enougth space with ram and other components for the heatsink.
Are someone has test that?

Redzo
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Post by Redzo » Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:35 am

rei wrote:CoH is 2006's Real-Time-Strategy game of the year.
And what a great game it is.... :D Best strategy game in looooong time

yuchai
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Post by yuchai » Wed May 09, 2007 7:13 am

Just a heads up that it's available at zipzoomfly at $160 shipped for those in the USA. I think at this price it's a good deal and swayed me to buy it over the ATI X1950pro.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... e=10005112

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