Labs

Like the GeForce 8600 GT, the GTS is quite an old card. It was introduced by Nvidia shortly after the GT to improve on that card's unspectacular performance, but if we're honest it didn't add agreat deal.

It does improve on the core clock, boosting it to 675MHz, and has a superior memory clock of 1GHz on its 256MB of GDDR3. Otherwise, it's essentially the same 80nm card, with 289 million transistors, as well as DirectX 10 support. Two can be lined up together in an SLI configuration, and it uses the PCI Express 1.1 interface - not a huge issue because it won't ever require the bandwidth of PCI Express 2.0. It only takes up a single slot in yourcase, and given its lower-mid-range performance, its cooling requirements aren't too extravagant.

The superior specification to

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the 8600 GT does make a difference, but it's only slight. The 8600 GTS managed a slightly better 23fps in Crysis at the same Medium settings, but it obviously still can't stretch to High. Things were better in the slightly less demanding Call of Duty 4, with an average of 52fps in our Medium test. Bumping things up to 1,600 x 1,200 and High settings reduced that to just 19fps, showing the gap between the 8600 cards and the HD 3850, which managed a far more impressive 34fps. The Call of Juarez DirectX 10 benchmark increases the gap - just 13fps for the GTS, compared with 41fps for the HD 3850.

This would be fine if the ATi card cost significantly more than the GTS, but unfortunately this isn't the case. A 256MB HD 3850 costs just £9 more, typically, than the £72 GTS. For the huge boost in performance, the decision shouldn't even need thinking about. Plus, the 512MB version of that card costs a little more again (£94), but, incredibly, managed to double the frame rate of the GTS in someof our tests.

This leaves the 8600 GTS in a sorry state. The brand-new 9600 GT showsjust what a mid-range card should be capable of, even if it does cost a bit more than the GTS at launch. Alternatively, the cheaper ATi Radeon HD 3850 represents a far better value proposition than the GTS, perfect for those looking to play games without breaking the bank.