GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

[Spongebob]

What could I compare the 8600 GTS to? Its newer than the 8800GTS so I'm guessing driver support\compatability for Vista might be better than most video cards that have been around for awhile, but the 8800 is about $100(US) more on average than the 8600. Is the 8800 that much better though?

[Yawgm0th]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

The 8600GTS compares to about an 7800GT, though it can beat 7900 series cards in some games, it loses by a significant margin in others.

Driver is support in Vista is no better than 8800GTS.

The 8800GTS is that much better.

[Spongebob]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

The 8600GTS compares to about an 7800GT, though it can beat 7900 series cards in some games, it loses by a significant margin in others.

Driver is support in Vista is no better than 8800GTS.

The 8800GTS is that much better.

Thanks for the info.
Whats the near future look like for video cards? When is ATI\AMD going to release their new DX10 gaming graphics cards and does Nvidia have something else coming out soon?

[Yawgm0th]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

AMD is releasing its cards soon, but initial reports are that they downright suck. I'm predicting Nvidia will win this generation, but we'll have to wait a little while to see. At the very least, you can expect 8800 prices to drop a tad when X2900 cards come out.

Nvidia still needs to get entry-level and integrated solutions out there, but there's no market for it right now so it could be a little while. Maybe not until the first DX10 games actually hit the market. Nvidia isn't due for a half-generation speed bump yet simply because there's no AMD to compete with. I'd suspect Nvidia will have some new high-end and mid-range cards before Fall, but there's nothing official in the pipeline AFAIK.

[casecutter]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

Hard to say they will suck, but the 8800's look to be the winners. The way I see it, AMD/ATI is poised to stomp on the 8600's which would be more meaninful in the short term since the 8600's are utter garbage.

[wayout44]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

Rumour has it that the new AMD/ATi cards will be priced at such a point that they will grab market from the high-mid to low-high end nVIDIA cards plus they have some very interesting extras built in to compensate for lower performance.

[Jalida]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

In my opinion the 8800GTS is FAR superior in performance over the 8600GTS.

I was looking for a replacement of my ATi X1900GT card and the salesperson suggested the 8600GTS telling me that it was far better in terms of bother visual quality and performance then my existing X1900GT card. I bought into it and bought the card.

The performance was no where near the performance that I had with the x1900gt by Ati. I ended up returning it for a refund. In fact it was half of the performance in the games that I play then what I got with the ATi X1900GT card.

Several days later I purchased the 8800GTS OC by BFG and indeed the performance increase was a bit over double performance. In games that used to get 45FPS with the ATi card, I was now getting 90-103FPS.

It was well worth the extra $100 to purchase the 8800GTS OC over the 8600GTS OC in my opinion.

All of this is hard to say but true because I havn't been an Nvidia fan in probably more then 5 years now, but the 8800GTS OC put my X1900GT to shame in the games that I happen to play, and while the X1900GT isn't the latest and greatest, it's by far no sloucher.

[silent-circuit]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

The 8500/8600 series cards are severely crippled in comparison to the 8800 series.

You're looking at 32 stream processors on the 8600 (pixel/vertex/geometry shader units) as opposed to 96 on the 8800 GTS cards and 128 on the 8800 GTX and Ultra.

Core is quick, but the stripped down (128bit) memory bus is a major weak point as well. I would not recommend an 8500 or 8600 series card to anyone save those building high-end HTPCs that plan to watch a great deal of high-def video and want to get really great stutter-free playback. Purevideo HD is the /only/ good thing about these cards, so far as I am concerned.

That said, it would likely be a better option to just get a slightly faster CPU and a less expensive GPU in that situation as well. The 8500/8600's are not horrible, but they don't appear to be a good fit for anyone right now. The architecture is so cripped in comparison with the higher end cards that I believe their "Direct X 10" support will prove useless, much like Pixel Shader 3.0 support on lower-end 6xxx series cards proved to be. No one will be playing UT3, Bioshock, or Crysis on a 8600 at high resolution, that's for sure.

Numbers below liberated from the Tomshardware VGA comparison charts:

HL2 Episode One, 1600x1200, 4xAA/8xAF

8800GTX: 125
8800GTS: 102
X1950XTX:78
7900GTX: 65
X1950Pro:54
8600GTS:39-45
8600GT: 32-36
7600GT: 28
7600GS: 17
8500GT: 14-17

Prey, 1600x1200, 4xAA, 8xAF
8800GTX: 93
8800GTS: 67
X1950XTX:60
7900GTX: 51
X1950Pro:41
8600GTS: 26-30
8600GT: 21-24
7600GT: 24
7600GS: 16
8500GT: 10-12

There were more, but I think that maks the pattern reasonably clear. I believe these were with older drivers, too, so numbers across the board may be a bit higher now, but the splits are likely about the same.

[Holston]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

8800GTS is MUCH better! It has more stream processors, more texture blocks and ROPS. Has wider memory bus.

[SaltyDog]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

Its true! So true, i have a XFX 8800GTS, i brought the one that is factory overclocked, core bus is 580MHz and memory bus is 1800MHz, it serisously kicks ass for how much i paid, i know its not that graphics hungry, but i've got 181 FPS on the counter-strike video stress test, all details maxed out and AA 4X and AF4X!

[rob8od]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

Its true! So true, i have a XFX 8800GTS, i brought the one that is factory overclocked, core bus is 580MHz and memory bus is 1800MHz, it serisously kicks ass for how much i paid, i know its not that graphics hungry, but i've got 181 FPS on the counter-strike video stress test, all details maxed out and AA 4X and AF4X!

ok, but how many FPS do you think I'll get with an 8800GTS(320mb) with an AMD4200+ processor?

[casecutter]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

Depends on your system and the resolution you run your monitor on. Anything 1280X1024 and under is ideal for the 8800GTS 320MB. With resolutions higher than that you'll run out of texture memory. I am not a big fan of the current DX10 video cards because I firmly believe, and this is my opinion, that they will not be able to handle upcoming DX10 titles. The 8800GTX/ULTRA will probably do OK, but anything under them is gonna take a beating. Wait for the next gen DX10 cards to come out is my advice.

[rob8od]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

Depends on your system and the resolution you run your monitor on. Anything 1280X1024 and under is ideal for the 8800GTS 320MB. With resolutions higher than that you'll run out of texture memory. I am not a big fan of the current DX10 video cards because I firmly believe, and this is my opinion, that they will not be able to handle upcoming DX10 titles. The 8800GTX/ULTRA will probably do OK, but anything under them is gonna take a beating. Wait for the next gen DX10 cards to come out is my advice.

I want to crank my games up full blast. I don't want to run at anything below highest settings. will I be able to do that with an AMD 4200 and 2GB of RAM along with the 8800GTS 320mb card?

[wayout44]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

Get yourself the 640MB version then if you want to play that way.

[casecutter]

Re: GeForce 8600GTS Vs. GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB video cards

If you are looking to play any games coming out this fall that way, then you will be forced to get a 8800GTX or 8800 Ultra since they are the only 2 Nvidia based cards that can run most anything maxxed out. THe ATI HD2900's are also extremely strong and are supoosed to be able to handle DX10 better, but until we have an actual native DX10 game there is no way to prove/test that.