7600GS to 8600GT

[Riff]

I am currently using this:

7600 GS (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-76GS)

Not the exact card, but it's close enough.

Would this be a suitable upgrade:

8600 GT (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-86GT5#)

This card seems to get the 5 star rating, and it's perfect for my budget. Naturally I'll be getting 2, to take advantage of the SLI capabilities just with the one above.

Oh and would I need a bigger PSU?

AMD 64x2 4600
550w PSU
ASUS M2N4 Motherboard
Shortly to be 2Gb of RAM (1Gb currently)

I am heavily into games and want the video card(s) I get to cope with them.

Thanks in advance.

[wuyanxu]

why not get 8800GT (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-88GT5) a graphics card that comes very close to 8800GTX, yet for half the price.

that would eliminate the need for SLi and potential compatibility issues

[JDowdall]

yeah a 8800gt @ the same price would completely blow the dual 8600gt's outta the water, even the 3850 @ about 3/4 the price probs has better performance

[Riff]

Completely missed that card when I was looking.

Will look into it.

Thanks all.

[teknokid]

dont look into it, just buy it :)

[JDowdall]

lmao he mite wana look @ the 3850 too but the 8800gt is probably better @ the amount of money he's lookin @ spending

[Torres]

8600GT is a ok cheap card but you can get so much better for a bit more for example as said above the 3850, the 8800GS is coming out but not sure when so that would be a good card to wait for

[wuyanxu]

8800GS an OEM card based on G80 chipset, and it will have 386 or 768MB of RAM, meaning it has good memory bandwidth, but lags in processing power when compared to G92 8800GT cores.

seriously, 8800GT is the best graphics card money can buy, i would have bought one if it was released earlier, but then, i bought my 8800GTX from another friend for 190 quid 3 month ago :lol:

[JDowdall]

it aint the best, the 8800 ultra is the best but the 8800gt is probably one of the best performing cards for the money but the 3850 beats it on price/performance

[teknokid]

no, the 8800gt isnt far of twice as powerful as 3850...

[Torres]

i wouldnt say it beats the 8800GT on performance but certaintly on price, 8800GT is best bang for your buck right now

[JDowdall]

8800gt aint near twice the performance the 3850 has 80-90% the performance

[teknokid]

no it doesnt... its about 60%

[wuyanxu]

technokid is right, 3850 in crossfire can only manage to catch up with one single 8800GTX. while 8800GT is about 90% speed of GTX, so 3850 would be around 60% of 8800GT.

[JDowdall]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2217144,00.asp they work out at about 80% at the lower res and 72% @ the higher :D

[Jonny2Bad]

Yeah the 8800gt is still the weapon of choice for money performance ratio, but if dual cards are being used the 3870 is xfire is better than 8800gt in sli for some mad reason!

[JDowdall]

lol yh if u got the money 4 the 8800gt go 4 it but dnt be afraid 2 go with the 3870 or 3850 and crossfire is more efficient than sli so the 3870 works out better :D

[djgandy]

3850's arent that slow. Definately way more than half the speed of an 8800GT and at nearly half the price they are great value.

At the end of the day if you arent getting enough fps you just turn off AA or texture detail down a bit. 99.999% couldn't give a **** if the settings aren't full. Gameplay > Graphics

[teknokid]

lol, or in my case graphics>gameplay. although i play css over crysis :)

[JDowdall]

wat dj said

[djgandy]

lol, or in my case graphics>gameplay. although i play css over crysis :)

As i said gameplay > graphics. Crysis sucks :P Installed to look at it, looks nice, boring game.

Cod4 however looks just as good imo and is 100x better. Crysis is just loads of HDR which "looks" impressive but is the graphic equivilent of the loudness button on a stereo.

[Taxation]

lol, or in my case graphics>gameplay. although i play css over crysis :)

and on what screen is this??

[teknokid]

lol, was on my 21" crt, soon to be 24" dell lcd :)

[Taxation]

you say you prefer graphics
id rather play halo CE than crysis
looks can be done easily, but gameplay takes hard work

[JDowdall]

wat the almighty tax said, but i'd prefer crysis lol the fall damage just gets me on h1

[Jonny2Bad]

Just to mess with every1 I still think that team fortress2 was 1 of the best 4 gameplay and graphics for last year and u don't need a super rig to play it, again cod4 was right up there and i agree a better all rounder than crysis!

[wuyanxu]

Crysis > all!

the suit functions are the best FPS have ever got! you don't call that gameplay?

now, if you excuse me, i will go and enjoy blasting other nanosuited soilders

3850 in Crossfire only matches with 8800GTX. so why on earth would it be 70%+ the performance of 8800GT?

[JDowdall]

dont question it look @ my link, obviously its not that simple

[wuyanxu]

well, only explainasion would be crossfire wasn't working in all games at 2x the speed of single 3850

[JDowdall]

wahh? nooo u've got this rong crossfire and sli arent 100% efficient they dont give double the performance, crossfire is about 80% efficient and sli about 65%

[teknokid]

actually thats wrong as well, it varies for different games. like 8800gtx sli is very efficient in crysis but non existent in CM: Dirt

[Torres]

actually thats wrong as well, it varies for different games. like 8800gtx sli is very efficient in crysis but non existent in CM: Dirt

maybe becuase you only need a 6800 at minimum :P

[teknokid]

haha, but i cant run it high with a gtx, and people using 2 get no benefit...

[JDowdall]

well duh all averages are gonna vary because they are averages!, on average crossfire is about 80% and sli is 65% which is where the 3870 catches up

[teknokid]

nah crossfire isnt that much on average, there both around 50%, my magazine did tests a few months back on it..

[JDowdall]

they aint both about 50% thats silly and doesnt explain why dual 3870's are better than dual 8800gt's u pillock!! nd they are much better than that i cba 2 find the article on it

[teknokid]

well maybe for 3870's crossfire is good, sli is good for ultras. it depends on so many things!!

[JDowdall]

lmao stop bein so simplistic u nooob! tax or dj get in here ur well versed in this sorta thing shut these foolish noobs up! :D

[Jonny2Bad]

well maybe for 3870's crossfire is good, sli is good for ultras. it depends on so many things!!
Jeez sli ultras isnt even worth talking about in the same sentence as xfire 3870 the cost performance ratio makes the ultra obselete in my eyes.

[teknokid]

yes but because there top end nvidia has worked on the drivers, thus you get about 90% boost in crysis with sli iirc.

[Jonny2Bad]

Lol all crysis is now is a benchmark for pc's!

[JDowdall]

lol yeah the online is **** which has made it forgettable

[teknokid]

agreed :)

[Torres]

haha, but i cant run it high with a gtx, and people using 2 get no benefit...

you cant run it on high with a GTX :shock:, i dont own the game but im surpised it dosnt max out well on your system

[Jonny2Bad]

I wont max out well with 2 ultra's at at anything above normal resolutions torres. I dont think even the new triple gtx sli will run it at the way its supposed to be played.

[djgandy]

lmao stop bein so simplistic u nooob! tax or dj get in here ur well versed in this sorta thing shut these foolish noobs up! :D

SLI IS BOOOOOORING

[teknokid]

no, triple sli ultras can run it on very high (no AA) with 1024x768, anything higher and it gets jerky lol...

[Jonny2Bad]

Anyway then the point is pointless :lol:

[Torres]

lmao stop bein so simplistic u nooob! tax or dj get in here ur well versed in this sorta thing shut these foolish noobs up! :D

SLI IS BOOOOOORING

it is and pointless, waste of money blah blah the list is endless, but it does enable you to run games more smoothly at higher resoultions 8)

[teknokid]

yeah, i can only see sli pointful if you have 1920x1600 or above and triple if you have a 30" screen...

[Riff]

Well thanks for the replies, and thanks for filling me in on a lot of internal components.

I bought a single 8800GT in the end. Wow! Every game I have, including ones I'd settled on functional graphics now play on ultra high settings.

(Who would have believed that shadows and lighting effects made all the difference!)

Giant card though, +50% again on my old 7600! Had to move a few things around in the case.

Chucked in in there and got a high pitched constant beep.

Long story short, there's now a branded (Thermaltake) PSU in there with the 6pin PCI-E connector doing what it should.

Cheers again all, until the next upgrade. :)

[JDowdall]

yah i get that high pitched long beep on the odd occasion hmmm mite be connected to the psu then i'll mount my gfx card on a different rail then

[Jonny2Bad]

I know its not till you have a high end card that you realise how good they really are. Enjoy :lol:

[teknokid]

yeah, they really do rock. The beep is from the card saying it is not getting enough power.

[matz]

oh dear... thats one thing i have to remember when i get mine :) thanks tekno

[teknokid]

np, well i had to remember 2!!

[matz]

hehe! i cant blomen wait for new PC..
i will do bludey tons of reviews for it aswell

i can get all the parts except the graphics card right now. its just whats the point in onboard for high tech games untill i have the graphics card.

i expect i could play cs 1.6 on a q6600 but whats the bloddey point :) im gonna see if the seller will be able to do a quick draw on paypal

[teknokid]

what? your getting the card off ebay?

[matz]

no no, im geting it off novatech its just i need the funds to purchase it and for them funds i need to sell my PC and i got a buyer from ireland that buys it for £350

[Jonny2Bad]

no no, im geting it off novatech its just i need the funds to purchase it and for them funds i need to sell my PC and i got a buyer from ireland that buys it for £350
£350 for your old rig amazing what a result quick get the money off them and hurry b4 they find out its not worth it :shock:

[matz]

thats what im trying to DO.. lol

[teknokid]

LOL, my brothers got 2 6600gt's under his bed :) im taking one soon for a 2nd screen.

[matz]

512mb edition?

6600GT was the first SLI card :) so its just on the borders of benefits lol

[teknokid]

i know, its the 256mb version, but theres 2 :)
They were part of my first rig, i loved it, then i got my new one and sold it to my bro :)
It was: My bros pc now:
Amd venice core 3500 E6600 water cooled
2x 6600gt Ati 3850
Asus a8n-sli Abit Fatal1ty Mobo
1gb ram 2gb corsair Ram
Hiper 480w psu Same psu
Hes not doing bad. but i do nagg him a lot to upgrade so he gets my old bits....

[matz]

if i had a brother or sister i would be like yeah you can buy my old rig for the price i payed for it (5years ago or sommit) and back then it was still performance per buck range ;0