Ithian

Well I'm looking at mid - midhigh range vid cards. So the 8800 is too expensive, and my power supply is 400W I believe.

So the 8600 GTS (which only costs 164$, no where close to an 8800.) I'm now looking at an EVGA mostly because it's gotten nothing but great reviews, isn't the best but it's probably the best bang for its buck.

This
is the one im looking at currently.

That 3870 doesn't look bad, imma go look at it in a minute. I'm really just interested in again, being able to run my games at decent - high graphical settings and not lag. And it also to blow my mind compared to my 6150, without blowing my wallet away aswell.

*edit*
Ok just read the reviews, and the 3870 got blown out of the water by the 8800 gt. And its barely even better than the 8600GTS per price, not so good =-/.

Being 80$ more than the 8600GTS, I don't think it's honestly worth it. Plus with the EVGA Step-UP program, I could possibly upgrade to 8800gt if i somehow find room for an extra... ohh.. 200$?

Anyway so far the 8600 has gotten solid reviews, isn't as fast as all the competitors but seems like a huge upgrade to my computer ,with a very small price, and can always get bumped up to a 8800.

If anyone can put some hard evidence why I shouldn't go with it, please show it. The main thing I've gotten is "no the 8600 sucks" but the reviews have showed it runs plenty fine. I'm not looking for an uber overclocking gpu, nor something to run 1600 x 1400 max settings. I just want something to give me decent fps at mid - high settings and allow me to play the actual recent games, rather than always catching the backdraft of the game's popularity. By the time my computer can run it, it's lost most of it's craze.

Till then
~Ithian

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Mordar

if you are planning to spend on a 8600GTS then I highly suggest you get the HD3850, it has the same price and works better than any mid range nvidia has to offer

and about the GT8800, yeah, it is actually better than the HD3870 but by a not so great margin, really, compare both card in gpureview and you can see the most prominent thing about the 8800GT is it's texture fill rate which I repeat IS NOT a definitive factor in buying a card, what matter the MOST is the bandwith memory which gives you the "raw" power, and the HD3870 is superior in that regard against the 8800GT and also includes "next gen" compatiliby, at that price (around 200$) is simply a great card for early-mid 2008, the good incredible thing about the 8800GT are the great nvidia drivers which obviously blows the ati drivers out of the water, well, nvidia has ALWAYS kicked the arse of ATI in that regard

Ithian

again as I have said SEVERAL times, I'm >>NOT<< getting an 8800 from the get-go. Yet you people keep comparing to it.

Ok lets put it this way. I'm getting an 8600 GTS, prove why I should get something different for its power/price. The current one I'm looking at comes with Quake Wars & is 164$ (rebate not counted as the offer will expire like 4 days before I can even purchase the video card).

Now if something offers more raw power, and is barely more expensive... it needs more reasons. If it has this insane amount of power, but can't handle X or requires more power, or heats up too quickly for the standard fan, then I'm honestly not interested.

I'm a very low-tech gamer. I usually aim for mid-class, and when I buy something, I want to just plug it in and play. I don't want to have to deal with supercharging/overclocking/supercooling whatever. Just want something that is easy to use, easy to update, won't crash on me, and most importantly can run my games and make them look good without killing my frame rate.

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Mordar

I already proved why you SHOULD NOT buy a geforce 8600GTS just look at his price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130086

ok, look at it

now look at the price of the HD 3850

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102714

good, now, compare those two

I already did that for you

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards....=512&card2=546

see?, they both cost the same but the 3850 kicks the 8600GTs out of the water, now just add an extra 30 bucks and you can get a HD 3870 that is a huge boost for price-quality, and here's the good part, the 3850 consumes the SAME as the 8600GTS (you won't need another power supply) and over-heats even less because of his slim architecture, the 8800GT is around 300$ so that's out of the question for you, the 8600GTS is around 150-170$, the HD 3850 around 160-170$ and the HD 3870 around 200-230$, I understand your point, because I am neither a hardcore graphics whore gamer, but I mostly look up to the prices and decides what's best for my well earned buck

the 8600GTS is GOD-like if you never EVER had a good VGA, for if example if you only survived on an integrated graphics card (like me, I spend my money on 2 8600GTS connected in SLI and work wonders), but if you already got a let's say 6600, 7600, 6800, 7900, is NOT worth it at all because of his elevated cost compared to other same priced options

xXDeathzJrXx

How about SLI or crossfire? 2 100$ cards > 8600 GTS?

I am stupid at these stuff can't help much sorry.

Ithian

Sorry Mordor I forgot to include in my post after looking up the hd 3850, that my mother board can't hold it. I only have pci xpress 16 slots. No pci xpress 2.0.

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PowerGamer

I believe its backwards compatible,
you can use it for PCIE1, like the 8800GT.

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Mordar

they have retrocompatibility, actually the 8800GT is pci express 2.0 and fits in any pci express 16x, they are 2.0 because they are already prepared for the next generation of motherboards and processors

Ithian

Actually, Mordar... somethings you are wrong about.

The price. They are both 179$. So no price benefit there, even though you were pushing that as a strong point. Yes it might've been cheaper but as of now, the price is increasing, while the 8600 has stayed the same.

And the review site. Yes yours gets better reviews, but mine has 340 more reviews on mine. 340 ppl reviewed mine, 30 ppl reviewed yours. So if a few ppl vote 10, that means a lot more to yours than a 10 for 1 vote out of the 400 on mine.

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Mordar

ermmm no, the 3850 cost 179$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102714

against a 8600GTS of the same price, and if you look at the charts you'll see which stands out the most

and the 3870 cost 219$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=HD+3870&x=&y=

against 300$ from the 8800GT, might not be as good as the 8800GT but it is an affordable mid-high end VGA for the early next year including DX 10.1 and SM 4.0



dude, I'm not talking about reviews, because hey...they are subjective, I am talking about technical comparisons which obviously you cannot see, reviews mean nothing against raw technical data that I showed you featuring bandwith, busdwith, core processors, shader clock and everything else, if you actually took the time to see both comparisons I presented you with technical information and price-range comparisons, you asked for that, but now you say 400 obviously subjective opinions (because some say they are great some say they suck withouth knowing a THING about what they're buying) are better than the real deal in gpureviews

I remember once the 7900GSx2 got like 99999 reviews giving it 99999 points, in the end the 7900x2 was one of the most epic failure in nvidia story

it's your money but the main thing is that you asked for opinions yet you decided to buy whatever you like and spend on whatever and I might sound harsh Mediocre POS thing like the 8600GTS that is NOT worth the money (and everyone here already stated so), then why did you ask for opinions in the first place? and created a thread since you are just planning to do whatever you like, and that's whats matter isn't it?