8600gts Vs. 8800GTS

forester joe · Post by **forester joe** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:32 am

I saw in a report from Computex 2007, that someone had a sample of a 8600GTS with 256bit memory. anyone know anything?

alternatively, is the 8800GTS quiet/cool enough?

is it worth my while to look for a passive 8600GT/s or should I look for a 8800GTS with good quiet cooling? like a preinstalled Zalman vf900?

there is no way I'm swapping the cooler on a 300$+ graphics card.

Bories36 · Post by **Bories36** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:53 am

8800gts is cool enough, not very loud. I got mine for 259.99, $300 is a bit much. The 8600gt is really weak ive heard, Ive even heard it should be named the 8300gt, because its comparitive to a 7800gt and a 7300gt.

Max Slowik · Post by **Max Slowik** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:16 am

Keep in mind that the 8800 cards don't have very good video acceleration. If you watch movies on that thing, you're going to see a drop in performance there.

Also, ATI is, er, day away from releasing their 2600s, at least in small quantities, so I have heard. It should fill the gap between the 8600s and the 8800s well, and has that swanky Universal Video Decoder.

shunx · Post by **shunx** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:29 pm

Well the 8800 series has worse acceleration compared to the 8500/8600 series and the new ATI cards but it's still better than doing rendering in software mode. If your CPU is fast enough videoplayback should be ok. 8800 is more intended for gaming.

For info on noise levels check out the 8800 GTS noise thread.

Morten74 · Post by **Morten74** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:39 am

Bories36 wrote:8800gts is cool enough, not very loud. I got mine for 259.99, $300 is a bit much. The 8600gt is really weak ive heard, Ive even heard it should be named the 8300gt, because its comparitive to a 7800gt and a 7300gt.

Well, I guess that depends what you define as weak...

I have an Asus EN8600GT Silent and I really like it! It's 100% silent and runs a lot (approx 10 degrees C) cooler than the EN8500GT Silent I had for a week, and with almost double the performance (8400 vs 4400 in 3DMark05). If you don't have to be able to run e.g. Gothic 3 with max etail at 1600x1200 you should do fine. (Gothic 3 plays fine (no HDR, all other max) at 1280x1024 which is max. resolution for my Samsung 971P anyways...

Morten

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:41 am

er something to be explained about 8800gts's video acceleration. It does have SOME acceleration, just not at all like a 8600's.

8600 has a dedicated chip. I initially was pissed about that fact. I want to buy a 640 meg normal clocked 8800GTS but I use my comp mostly to watch movies. That's annoying.... right? NOPE! Nvidia felt that the 8600's on board chip didnt provide the clearest HD movie experience compared to leaving it off and letting software handle it. ahhh... so, one could say, eh so what, and probably be correct, but, I thought it would be a good thing to point out this.

im sure a 8600 doing 1080p looks awesome though.

quieting a passive card is kinda easy

but a 8800gts is easy as well for me as I use a Reserator from zalman.

pputer · Post by **pputer** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 6:07 pm

So, is a 8600GTS or 8800GTS the better deal? The latter card is better overall but the video acceleration is not as advanced. Also, Nvidia is taking a long time to develop it for the 8600 for XP and if you don't use Vista, you're out of luck so far.

The 8800 series and a decent cpu might be enough? But, the 8800 series of cards are $300 or more. That's very expensive for a card if you mostly want to play movies and edit video (formats).

I am looking into the 7900GS, 8600GTS or 8800GTS as the price differences are not that wide except the first two cards are considerably cheaper if you factor in buying other hardware. If you just need the card, that is different but if you're building a system, it adds up. The latter card is good if you want to play games also even if occasionally but that card also is decent for playing videos. The GTX is better but way overkill and too pricey. The 8600GTS is also expensive for what you get although one or two cards is reasonably priced but very weak according to some people . The cards need to be better utilized for XP to be a candidate for me.

andaca · Post by **andaca** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 11:17 pm

8600GT XXX all the way.

why? its more refined. small. cool. cheap. superb video capability's. overall better. consumes nothing. and its FAST. i dont care what some dumbass reviewer thinks . this baby is FAST.

the 8800- IMHO- is the stupid option, the retard choice, reminds me of a 6800 utra, all about the super framerate regardless of HEAT, power consumption, SIZE, noise, etc.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 10:30 pm

er.

well? if you want to play dx10 games on 1920x1200 resolution, the super 8600 is going to choke. not the card for everyone. if you havea 19 inch lcd, the 8600gts is probably fine and dandy enough though.

power to performance wise, 8800gts actually is very good.

pputer · Post by **pputer** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:55 am

I have a 22" LCD monitor. If I buy a LCD TV 32" that has 1080p, would the 8800GTS make a difference over other cards? Or is the 8600GTS better?

I would like to wait until 8800GTS prices go down. They have been discounted at times but I didn't know if I should get one and now they are a higher price again. I think that is bogus and don't want to give the manufacturers my money if they are doing that. They might be decent prices in the States but in Canada, they are awful prices.

I think the 8600GTS is overpriced, too. I don't want a DX9 card only to buy a DX10 card later on. I think the DX10 card is good in that I would probably be using it for a long time and not have to upgrade. I almost like the 8800GTX for that purpose but the price for that is insane.

Is there any theory that suggests the 8800GTS will go down in price again? There's a 8900 coming out eventually?

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:58 pm

8600gts is a dx 10, so is a 8800gts.

problem? same thing when the 6600GT debuted. It was smart shader 3.0, but any game that used that was unplayable on the 6600GT on account of the card was too slow to handle it. same thing with games comming out. eye candy wont be available to all but the higher end cards. 1920x1200 resolution with eye candy on is only meant for 8800GTS or higher. just the way it is. I like EVGA's cards. good support, and enormous warranties.