"BFGTech's GeForce 8600 GTS OC ThermoIntelligence is a great example of a GeForce 8600 GTS and it delivers good performance for a gamer running a 17" or 19" LCD monitor in current titles. In isolation, it's a good card with a cooler that does exactly what it the manufacturer claims it will do, and then some based on our results.

Unfortunately though, BFGTech's ThermoIntelligence cards come with a price premium and the 8600 GTS OC2 is no exception to this rule at over £145 (inc. VAT). You can pick up a stock clocked GeForce 8600 GTS for around £110 (inc. VAT), which isn't too far behind in the performance stakes.

Probably more of a concern is the fact that Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB starts at just over £180 (inc. VAT), with BFGTech's own "OC" model starting at around £186. From the results obtained during this evaluation, both of these options look to be significantly better value for money for not that much more.

One thing we've not mentioned is the previous generation mid-range cards that are often perform better than the new generation of mid-range hardware and are available at more attractive price points. Of course, you won't be able to enable DX10 features on these cards, which we've proven can be enabled on the new mid-range cards in native DX10 games like / /BioShock, but the benefits at the moment are small."