To test the performance of the 8500 GTS, we had initially planned to use a Core 2 Duo system. However looking at its specifications and keeping in mind the fact that this card is designed for use with older machines, we decided to use one of our older test rigs. As it is plainly visible from the table, the configuration is fairly old but decently powerful even now.

We have divided our tests into 2 sections. In our first section we decided to test the performance of the card with a recent FPS game namely Prey. Though this game is fairly old now, it still offers a good test for any current-day graphic card. In our second section we simply ran 3DMark 2006, to get a comparable ORB score.

In the game test section, we utilized the following resolutions (1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200) with AA /AF switched off and with 4xaa/8x AF. Each test was run 3 times to eliminate any problems that we might face in the test and to arrive at an accurate conclusion.

As you can see the card clearly lacks any kind of graphical muscle to run games at more than 1280x1024. If a user enables basic AA/AF, the card’s performance at lower levels is barely acceptable and at 1600x1200 the card’s performance is barely worth mentioning. Our 3DMark2006 was no better. We got a score of 2123 which is rather low. On a simple comparison against other machines as listed in the Futuremark database, we found that our score was quite common place.We would like to comment on a problem we faced here. Though the card is listed as a DX10 title, we found that on running the DX10 Lost Planet demo, the FPS dipped so low it made running any kind of testing impossible. Despite repeated attempts to get a basic score, the demo would often freeze and cause the PC to lockup.

Having established the fact that XFX 8500GT is a very basic card, with limited graphical muscle we decided to check out Nvidia’s claim on PureVideo 2. To test this we replaced our CPU with an AMD 3000+ and reduced the RAM on our machine to 1 GB. We then proceeded to run a number of full HD resolution movies via a Blu-ray drive and some encoded samples. Despite the hefty reduction in the power of the PC, the PureVideo 2 lived up to its billing. The playback of our Blu-ray movie and our samples was effortless without any kind of system lag.

Conclusion
The XFX 8500 GTS 256 MB at a price of Rs. 4,900 is a budget product. It possesses very limited gaming capability and though it boasts of DX10 readiness it is at best aimed at users who want bragging rights. This card however has a far more useful market that it should be aimed at i.e. media-center PCs. It would shine under such conditions with its effortless HD decoding.