XFX’s newest addition to the Fatal1ty line is enticing, but ultimately doesn’t stand above the crowd.

After a few months of reviews at the extreme high end of today’s video card market, it’s time to (as they say in the schoolyard) do one for the people. Not that the people are suffering, in this case: today’s review subject is the newest addition to the Fatal1ty video card line, the GeForce 8600 GT, made by XFX.

Featuring the endorsement of professional gamer Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, the card includes some of the interesting and enticing enhancements that XFX works into all of its non-stock video cards, all for a seemingly reasonable price: at $160 retail, the 8600 GT Fatal1ty is a far more affordable card than the pricey prizes at the top of the GeForce 8-series chain.

But does lower price mean substandard performance – and just as importantly, is the 8600 GT Fatal1ty worth paying the thirty to sixty dollars more than a standard 8600 GT to own? Today we’ll be doing the tests to find out, as we examine the XFX GeForce 8600 GT Fatal1ty.

Specifications
So what does thirty to sixty dollars get you these days? Well, when it comes to the Fatal1ty (full specifications here), two major physical changes. First, the obvious one: XFX took off the 8600’s stock fan and replaced it with a large heat-dispersal construction, emblazoned with the Fatal1ty logo. XFX calls the ensemble of heat sink and aluminum fins “Silent But Deadly” (SBD) technology and touts it on the Fatal1ty’s box as a cooling solution that is both much quieter and much cleaner than a fan.

In practical terms, SBD means your gaming rig will have one less fan buzzing in your ear at your next LAN party, which isn’t something to understate. However, unless you’ve taken the time to dampen or remove all noise sources from your case, SBD technology is more of a cool look than anything else.

The second change comes from clock numbers: XFX has tweaked them, giving a 175 MHz boost to the Shader Clock, a 300 MHz boost to the Memory Clock and an 80 MHz boost to the Clock Rate. Comparing the percentage change between the Fatal1ty and the stock 8600 GT and the percentage boosts over stock of two other XFX cards I’ve reviewed recently (the 8800 Ultra ExTreme and the 8800 GTS 320 MB XXX), the increases XFX coaxed out of the Fatal1ty are above average – between twelve and seventeen percent. However, a stock 8600 GTS will give you even better overall numbers for the same price, making the Fatal1ty’s performance boost a bit of a wash.