With its new mainsteam cards NVIDIA has been quite successful in redefining the performance point of the mainstream class. Looking back at previous versions of the card, it is apparent that the gap between the mainstream and enthusiast class has grown significantly. The large gap between enthusiast and mainstream cards can be ascribed to the overall lower performance of the G8x mainstream parts.

By taking a look at our performance benchmarks today, it is easy for us to say that the G8x mainstream range of cards would not really work well for an extreme enthusiast. For an enthusiast with a budget in mind, we strongly suggest that the lowest GeForce card that should be bought is a 320 MB 8800 GTS. Any GeForce part other than that would probably not suit an enthusiast well, especially if the card is meant for gaming a high resolutions with quality settings at their maximum. The 320 MB 8800 GTS would probably be the card of this generation that best matches the "historical performance" of the mainstream class.

For those of you who are willing to compromise a little and feel the new mainstream cards would be a good match for you, it is hard for us to establish a clear winner out of the cards we reviewed today. While for enthusiast cards manufacturers always embark with the undertaking of achieving the highest performance, the focus of mainstream cards are usually somewhat different. Don't take us wrong, manufacturers still focus on performance, however, it is a smaller priority than in the high end market. Instead, manufacturers like focus on other features and aspects of the video cards.

In terms of raw performance, the ASUS GeForce 8600 GTS obtained the highest scores in most of our benchmarks thanks to its overclocked GPU. The ASUS 8600 GTS held an average advantage of 10-13% compared to other cards in its class clocked at the NVIDIA base frequencies. Obviously, the benchmarks favored the card with the higher clock. Surprisingly enought, despite its higher operating frequencies, the card ended up having one of the lowest overall power consumption scores out of its class, especially at idle.

If you're not looking for raw performance, though, the cards we have tested today also come with some unique characteristics. The Gigabyte mainstream cards we took a look at all are equipped with a passive thermal design, making them completely silent and ideal for HTPC use. The silent cooling soluiton, though, means that overclocking wouldn't be a very good idea for the card, meaning that resolution and filters would probably have to be set at lower resolutions for fluid gameplay.

The MSI GeForce 8600 GTS, for its part, is also quite an interesting card. The cooler of the MSI NX8600GTS, in fact, comes out to be the most effective cooler out of the entire lineup of mainstream cards we tested in this article. This does, however, have a slight drawback as the cooler also turns out to be the loudest. The thermal headroom of this card, though, makes it very ideal for overclockers.