GeForce 8600: DirectX 10 For The Masses

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
something i was thinking, maybe AMD/ATI is delaying their product to hold back the advance in technology, crazy yes, possible, of course.

for example, without competition from ati, nvidia will likely wait longer to release a much more advance card, and stick with the current line of products.

ATI is already behind on releasing a card, so if they can delay any more crazy technology, maybe they can catch back up.

it's crazy talk i know but i'm bored
 
Ape, I ask you this because your knowledge is far greater than mine and I want an opinion from someone I know I can trust:

Would you consider an 8600GTS a good upgrade from a 6600GT?
It has DX10 for upcoming games (even though we don't know yet how it performs in that scenario), and, a serious difference in performance. Plus PureVideo and stuff I don't care much about, but it's nice to have.
 
take this with a grain of salt, as i'm sure ape will have a much more intellectual response.

ask yourself, can you play all the games that you want to play right now. Obviously the higher the resolution the better. But on average, do you play all the games you have with good frame rates.

If so then why not just stick it out with your card, prices are only going to drop, plus with the introduction of DX10 games you can actually SEE how the DX10 cards perform

If you are not getting good frame rates, this is a great budget card if you want the DX10 capablities, and i think it would be a good upgrade from the 6600. (probably should compare the benchies)

However I'm not a guru, just my 2 cents :)
 
Why would you guys even bother posting benchmarks for the 8600's if you don't use a DX10 O.S. to do them with???
Click to expand...

For all those DX10 apps out there, what are they gonna test, the Cascades Demo?

This is moronic! period! take these results with a grain of salt... really, they are worthless without a Vista O.S.
Click to expand...

If the GF8800 is any example, the GF8600 likely performs better under WinXP, and the performance would be the same under vista.

And few gamers have made the jump to Vista, so the largest install base for this card is probably still the legions of XP gamers looking for DX9 performance, and will jump to Vista once there's actuall y a DX10 game out ther worth jumping for.

If the 8600's blow with Vista just as bad... so be it, but you guys have offered us NOTHING in the way of information today!
Click to expand...

Actually there's info there, still need more benchies IMO, you just need to know what it means, and obviously you don't. :roll:

BTW did you not read the part about the late arriving Vista drivers and parts?
 
Actually, I'm beginning to drop the quality settings more and more as the days pass by... Rainbow Six Vegas was a serious PITA, I had to play it at 800x600 in medium-low settings...

I'm not "completely frustrated" with my loyal 6600GT, I can still play many many games because of it and it's PS 3.0 support, but it's showing it's age by now. :cry:
 
Would you consider an 8600GTS a good upgrade from a 6600GT?
Click to expand...

Yes, for $150-160, not much more.
I would suggest waiting a few weeks for the price drops, and then when it hit $159 then it's worthwhile, until then there's far better deals for $150 and less.

If this is a 2 years build then it's definitely the type of card you want, but wait for the X2600s to launch, you should know more about your long term options, the price of one or the other should drop, or drop more, and then start considering your decisions. But right now I see the GF8600GTS as the X1950GT equivalent ($130) and then tack on what you consider DX10 support worth (which I give a $20-30 value).

That's my thinking.
 
Don't know what the Ape will say, but I think an 8600 would be a big jump in performance compared to your 6600. Sabenfox has a good reply in waiting for the DX10 games to come out and then choosing, but a way around this is to buy a card from EVGA and then use their 90 day upgrade policy to upgrade your card in a couple months without loosing the value of your investment.
 
Prices are too high on those cards.

And who the f*ck would buy that from Best Buy? Some dumbazz teenager that doesn't read any tech review websites blowing his parents' money?

Just cough up the dough for an 8800 GTS 320. Or wait until AMD fare comes out to shake the prices a bit.
 
but a way around this is to buy a card from EVGA and then use their 90 day upgrade policy to upgrade your card in a couple months without loosing the value of your investment.
Click to expand...

That's a good idea, but, I'm faaar from the Step-Up program (as "far" as "I'm in another continent"). Nevertheless, a good idea. :wink:
 
dude,honestly, I would say that card would perform EVEN SLOWER on Vista..
like.. hint hint.. ALL OTHER CARDS!
Click to expand...

That's the point... we all have NO idea. This article was labeled "DX10 Cards for the masses" not "8600 Cards for the masses", so why base your entire testing process around DX 9.0c??

If you guys don't want to be "beta testers" for MS with Vista, than you would be stupid to go out and spend the money on a DX10 card anyhow. There are much better deals on 79xx cards to be had.

Let's see some comparsion marks with an 8600 on Vista and XP playing CoH with DX9, and CoH with the DX10 patch... than we can judge for ourselves.
 
I really expected the 8600 series to have 64 Stream Processors. 32 processors and a 128 bit bus seems too lame for 2007 mid-range.
That might give me another reason to upgrade my X1950XT.
At least the 8800 series has a good 96/128 processors.
There is a big gap between the 8800 and 8600. Is this what Nvidia wanted?
 
Bla bla bla, these test are not showing the full power of 8600 series, the drivers are not optimized, yet. 249$ price tag.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Just bought a BFG 8800GTS OC a week ago and it's still one of best performance for the money we can get, i don't need 1600x1200 since my 17' LCD can't go higher but i enjoy 1280x1024 (edited thx sojrner to remind me that mistake) full detail and i'm sure it will perform well under Vista crap when it's fixed (SP1)
 
Bla bla bla, these test are not showing the full power of 8600 series, the drivers are not optimized, yet. 249$ price tag.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Just bought a BFG 8800GTS OC a week ago and it's still one of best performance for the money we can get, i don't need 1600x1200 since my 17' LCD can't go higher but i enjoy 1240x1024 full detail and i'm sure it will perform well under Vista crap when it's fixed (SP1)
Click to expand...

you have got one seriously strange LCD man... you might want to have that looked at b/c you got gipped... missing 40960 pixels and you should have whoever sold that to you go find em.

😉

8)
 
The pricing of these poor cards show that Nvidia are simply taking advantage of ATI being worse than useless at this point - at least Nvidia actually get cards to market, the high price reflects that ATi have lost the plot over the last 6-8 months.


I bought a 7950GT from EVGA yesterday, i knew the 128bit bus would cripple the 8600 and it's price/performance ratio is total nonsense, i didn't even wait for benchies.

This way i get a better card than the 8600 for rental for 90 days, when DX10 games hit i can then afford a 8800GTS 640MB as i already have £150 towards it sitting in my PC!!!
 
That's the point... we all have NO idea. This article was labeled "DX10 Cards for the masses" not "8600 Cards for the masses", so why base your entire testing process around DX 9.0c??
Click to expand...

It's still a DX10 card, that there are no DX10 apps to test it on other than nV demos means you test it on current DX9 titles. It's still a DX10 card, blame M$ and the Devs for poor DX10 implementation. So regardless of your semantics, DX9 is the area these cards currently compete in until there's actual titles in stores or patches on sites.

If you guys don't want to be "beta testers" for MS with Vista, than you would be stupid to go out and spend the money on a DX10 card anyhow.
Click to expand...

Except the GF8800 dominaes everything else in DX9 and will of course beat them in DX10 since it's not an option to the others, in this case it's a question of price/performance. Still fine to spend you money on this card, because it can play old, current and future titles, just not worth the current MSRP.

There are much better deals on 79xx cards to be had.
Click to expand...

Yes there are, but there's likttle point in getting them, because dollar for dollar right now the X19xx series outperform them.

Let's see some comparsion marks with an 8600 on Vista and XP playing CoH with DX9, and CoH with the DX10 patch... than we can judge for ourselves.
Click to expand...

You could if the official COH path were out of Alpha/Beta testing, it's still only 1.5 on THQ's site(at this time), 1.6 was just announced (still in dev/testing),and DX10 doesn't come until Patch 1.7.
FSX's patch isn't out of Beta yet either, so what mythic DX10 games are out there that are publically available?

Quite yer moaning and get a clue.
Informed criticism is valid, yours on the other hand is moaning about the state of the industry not this review.
 
Ape, I ask you this because your knowledge is far greater than mine and I want an opinion from someone I know I can trust:

Would you consider an 8600GTS a good upgrade from a 6600GT?
It has DX10 for upcoming games (even though we don't know yet how it performs in that scenario), and, a serious difference in performance. Plus PureVideo and stuff I don't care much about, but it's nice to have.
Click to expand...


Actually, you are one of the few people that this might make sense. If you need a better graphics card, plan on moving to Vista and play games, and don't already have something more advanced than the 6600GT... why not. you pay a little premium over the DX9 comparable performing card.


For me... I have a $130 7900GS. If this is the future of budget cards, there is no Vista and no DX10 in my future for a VERY long time. It took me two years after 9600 pro to upgrade to 6600GT, and a year more to upgrade to a 7900GS, and I don't play anything that maxes out my adapter.

Looking over at overclockers.com, I see tha they reference a report that most people upgrade even less than I do. $130 was the most I ever spent on a graphics card!

So you offer me two DX10 cards that (for the most part) perform worse than what I have for a $200 price tag.... you get no sale! What would it take to make a sale to me? I need 50% more performance than a 7900GS in DX9 for under $150 OR a game that requires DX10 that will perform acceptably with a 22" WS monitor.

Thus, they neither offer a performance incentive to upgrade, nor is there a DX10 or other NEED to upgrade. IF ATI follows suit with their vaporware, I think the graphics card manufacturers are in short term DSHT waiting for the "must have" game that will drive sales.

Folks, we have been listening to this DX10 crapola for a YEAR. I am beginning to think that PC gaming and the video card era have now peaked. Maybe consoles are the future, after all.
 
The consensus seems to be that these cards are lagging on price/performance. When AMD shows up with their midrange Nvidia will have to compete. In the interim if I were in their(Nvidia's), shoes I too would charge a premium for being the only DX10 game in town.

I have no doubt that these cards will sell both retail and OEM. Now the Dell's and HP's can advertise DX10 at lower price points.
 
i think there is a nice little software nobody talks about in any review talk could reflect even just a litle the potential of cards: i t called Roboblitz.
 
Here's another question I didn't see answered -- what is the power usage and heat impact of the new cards? Seems to me that they should be significantly cooler than the 8800 series, and draw far less power. The 80nm design should help with that, but it's not even mentioned.
Click to expand...

That I would very much like to see - these cards could be good in an HTPC.
 
hopefully they lower the price for the 8800gts 640mb soon or release a 8800/8900gs so i have a upgrade path....
Click to expand...
If you have a SLI board you could always get a 2nd one (Assuming you have a 8800gts 320mb edition).
 
i smell the FX fiasco just with a different name, 128bit memory thats bs my gf 6800xt ( yes i know its crap) has 256bit! so my point is, why even put it out, i mean the x1900pro is doing better and thats a generation older, i dont see where this is going but good luck, lets hope ati spit out a good card
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom