There are only three GeForce 8600 series graphics cards in Gigabyte's quiver, and the GV-NX86S256H sits in the middle of that range. On paper, the card doesn't look particularly special. Gigabyte hasn't tweaked the core or memory clocks to deliver better performance, and the card's street price almost exactly matches the low end of Nvidia's $199-$229 target price range for the 8600 GTS.

Yet there's much more to the GV-NX86S256H than clock speeds and pricing, and it only takes a quick glimpse of the card to understand why.

Yes, this card comes equipped with passive cooling—not just any passive heatsink, but the largest chunk of industrial metal we've ever seen on a graphics card. The cooler's flat grey finish is a little dull, perhaps, but it wouldn't look out of place in Battlestar Galactica, and that's all the cosmetic endorsement a PC enthusiast should need. Besides, when set against the blue board and polished copper heatpipes, I think the flat grey finish looks rather smart.

The cooler is a tricky affair, pairing a chunky heatsink that sits atop the graphics chip with a series of more intricate fins. Those fins jut out from the expansion slot cover, partially obscuring our view of the card's dual dual-link DVI ports and its video output port. There's also additional venting under the fins to encourage airflow.

Passively cooling a GPU running at close to 700MHz can't be easy, so it's no surprise the Silent Pipe 3 heatsink takes up two slots. What's more surprising is the fact that the card doesn't feature the six-pin auxiliary PCIe power connector present in Nvidia's reference design. Gigabyte's done a custom board for the GV-NX86S256H. In addition to dropping the power connector, they've juggled the layout, likely to accommodate the massive, passive cooler.

Perhaps they shouldn't have.

You see, although the GV-NX86S256H is dead silent while idling on the Windows desktop—like any passively-cooled graphics card should be—firing up a 3D application makes it whine and squeal like a stuck pop star. With some apps, you just get a hum that's only annoying because of its relatively high frequency. But in others, like Oblivion, the card practically wails in protest and occasionally sounds like an old modem caught in a particularly offensive high-pitched handshake. The sound appears to be coming from the board's surface-mounted electrical components, since there's really nothing else that could be making any noise.

We've been through two of these cards, and they both exhibited identical behavior on our nForce 680i SLI-based test system—a rig that hasn't produced similar squealing with other cards. We even fired up the card on a new Intel P35 Express-based motherboard and were greeted by similar sounds, although this time it was more of an incessant buzz.

What's even more bizarre, and perhaps related, is that the GV-NX86S256H comes bundled with a PCIe power adapter—as if there were somewhere to plug it in. Hmm.

Gigabyte does supply a pair of DVI-to-VGA adapters in the box, alongside a dongle that feeds component and S-Video outputs. Those you can use.

The real gem in the Gigabyte box is a full copy of Supreme Commander, perhaps one of the most hotly anticipated real-time strategy games of the year. We don't normally get excited about game bundles, but that's because most include older titles long past their prime. Supreme Commander is about as fresh as they come, and it'll cost you around $40 at retail, so it adds unique value to the package.

Gigabyte hasn't done anything imaginative with the GV-NX86S256H's three-year warranty, though. Parts and labor are both covered for the duration, but it's still a long way from a lifetime.