The long awaited mainstream video cards, descendants of the G80 graphics core, the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 series have materialized in the form of some pretty interesting details. These products are divided into two main categories, the NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS and 8600GT are the mainstream cards which are believed to replace the 7950GT and 7900GS, and respectively 7600GT. The 8500GT's target is to replace the 7600GS.

Both of the 8600 series cards are going to use G84 as the graphics core, GeForce 8600GTS being built on a eight-layered Printed Circuit Board (PCB), featuring 256MB of GDDR3 memory running at 2000MHz, with the core frequency at 675MHz. The memory interface will be on a 128-bit bus, providing a total of 32GB/s transfer rate.

The GeForce 8600GT is a downgraded version of the GTS, having two options for the memory size, on 128 or 256MB of GDDR3 memory, running at a 1400MHz frequency. The graphics core's frequency is at 540MHz, and the card uses the same 128-bit memory interface, with a total of 22.4GB/s transfer rate. The video card also features a six-layered PCB, unlike the eight layers present on the 8600GTS.

GeForce 8500GT on the other hand will be equipped with a G86 graphics core, and will support NVIDIA SLI and PureVideo technologies, just like the other two video cards we've talked about. Details are scarce regarding whether the graphics card will use DDR2 or GDDR3 memory.

The cards will also feature dedicated video engines for PureVideo processing, able to provide hardware accelerated video playback resolutions up to 1080p in MPEG2 high-definition and WMV HD formats. As an addition, both graphic cores allow for advanced post-processing video algorithms. The race is on for the mainstream and mid-range markets, with competition from ATI's RV610 and RV630, due on the market in April and May, and also the elusive R600 which keeps getting delayed from release date to release date, targeting the high-end market.