Many enthusiasts have been waiting to get a glimpse at Nvidia's mid-range graphics cards based around G84 and G86. The wait is over as MSI was showing cards based on the two new GPUs on its stand at the show.
Using a process of elimination and twenty probing questions (no rubber gloves needed - Ed), we worked out that G84 is used in Nvidia's mid-range GeForce 8600/8500 cards and there will be at least two SKUs based on the chip.
MSI was showing both GeForce 8600 GT and GeForce 8500 GT parts with interesting aftermarket cooling solutions. There were two 8600 GT cards, one diamond and one standard, and a GeForce 8500 GT too. Both G84 and G86 support HDMI, and one of the GeForce 8600 GT cards had an HDMI connector.
From what we can gather after spending quite some time looking at the cards, there's no on-board sound processing on GeForce 8600/8500/8300, or at least this is the case with MSI's implementations. Instead, audio sent over HDMI is transferred to the card via a cable from the sound card to an S/PDIF connector on the PCB.
G86, on the other hand, is Nvidia's low end GeForce 8300, but we can't confirm the number of different model numbers in the 8300 family at the moment. MSI was showing just the one G86 based card, but being the low end, we reckon there's going to be more. The card we saw was low-profile and had both HDMI and DVI connectors along with a passive cooling solution. We've attached some images of the various cards on show below.
Discuss in the forums.
Using a process of elimination and twenty probing questions (no rubber gloves needed - Ed), we worked out that G84 is used in Nvidia's mid-range GeForce 8600/8500 cards and there will be at least two SKUs based on the chip.
MSI was showing both GeForce 8600 GT and GeForce 8500 GT parts with interesting aftermarket cooling solutions. There were two 8600 GT cards, one diamond and one standard, and a GeForce 8500 GT too. Both G84 and G86 support HDMI, and one of the GeForce 8600 GT cards had an HDMI connector.
From what we can gather after spending quite some time looking at the cards, there's no on-board sound processing on GeForce 8600/8500/8300, or at least this is the case with MSI's implementations. Instead, audio sent over HDMI is transferred to the card via a cable from the sound card to an S/PDIF connector on the PCB.
G86, on the other hand, is Nvidia's low end GeForce 8300, but we can't confirm the number of different model numbers in the 8300 family at the moment. MSI was showing just the one G86 based card, but being the low end, we reckon there's going to be more. The card we saw was low-profile and had both HDMI and DVI connectors along with a passive cooling solution. We've attached some images of the various cards on show below.
Discuss in the forums.
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