Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 17th Apr 2007, 19:25

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...600_gts/1.html

MiNiMaL_FuSS · 17th Apr 2007, 19:35

bit disapointed really, expected these as next gen cards to be up there with the likes of the 7900's....8800 320mb still seems the best way to go if you must have DX10...plus they can be got for around £160 now.

DougEdey · 17th Apr 2007, 19:36

Maybe it's just me, but since Graphics cards used to have between 128MB and 256MB of RAM on them and they ran fine, why is it that a 320MB card which is replacing the equivalent 128MB card has difficulties with textures?

Bluephoenix · 17th Apr 2007, 20:01

one thing this does tell us is where NVidia may be going with the supposed 'Ultra' model or the 8900.

It will probably be a G80 scale or larger in terms of sp clusters, but have the increased texture address sections and the new VP.

as far as the article itself it looks like gamers will go for the 8800GTS models and the 8600 will be the baby of the HTPC guys. (especially with the HDMI, new VP, and HDCP/Vista Media support)

atanum141 · 17th Apr 2007, 20:16

Awesome Review as usual Tim tho i have a few questions:
1)In terms of an older system( 939 x4200,2gig ram...etc) Would this be a viable upgrade to play future games at averagely decent settings? E.G. Crysis?

2)Ive got a 7800GTX and would it be worth the upgrade? or would i just be wasting my money on Dx10? Or should i at lest wait for ATi based stuffs?

Ive seen the various GTS on sale @ Ebuyer for under £130/40 and add to the fact that you can get £10 off the purchase makes sense to me.

wafflesomd · 17th Apr 2007, 20:45

Why can't someone just make a card that clocks at like, 5ghz, has like, 1024 pipelines, and 2 gigs of ram.

Is it it me, or are cards just not progressing as much as they used to.

I remember back in the day, of th FX series, and my old ati 9700pro, that thing ran anything, and can still hold its own in game that use the source engine, as well as others.

z3rb · 17th Apr 2007, 21:32

I'm disapointed. I think i'm gonna need an 8800 GTS 320Mb instead D:

pendragon · 17th Apr 2007, 22:28

at the price point it's at.. the 8600 is just not worth it when 8800gts 320 gives you so much more for a tad more money :-/ .....well, unless you're a hardcore video editor

DXR_13KE · 17th Apr 2007, 22:41

a hint: FOR THE SAKE OF F*** ATI/AMD LAUNCH THAT GRAPHIC CARD ALREADY!!!!!
sorry.

Mathmarauder · 17th Apr 2007, 23:06

No bit-tech seal or ranking out of 10, I'm a little disappointed and I guess I will wait to see the offering from ATI in may.

ikra · 17th Apr 2007, 23:45

heh... waiting game this is... for the prices, drivers, and the competitor i.e. ati(obviously)

8600 aint worth teh money

LabRat1 · 18th Apr 2007, 00:41

No agp version at this price point?

I find that strange

Tulatin · 18th Apr 2007, 01:04

Quote:

No agp version at this price point?

I find that strange

Does nvidia make chipsets, or support motherboards that use AGP in our Vista era? Nope.

As to the performance, i guess it was to be expected. It's about right (midrange now = top end then) but i was expecting at least a 10 frame gain...

Muunsyr · 18th Apr 2007, 01:27

Glad to see my 7900GTX is holding up to the next gen cards. It certainly hit my wallet with everything it had. Maybe I'll get another one (2nd hand?) to keep it company before I go DX10...

Mathmarauder · 18th Apr 2007, 01:35

I would like to know how these perform in sli, any plans to test this later Tim?

Tim S · 18th Apr 2007, 04:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mathmarauder

No bit-tech seal or ranking out of 10, I'm a little disappointed and I guess I will wait to see the offering from ATI in may.

Unfortunately, there was just no way I could come up with a score because I still can't really gauge where the card's performance actually falls. It's just incredibly inconsistent across the games we've tested. The only thing that was consistent was that it generally sucked with 4xAA enabled.

Tim S · 18th Apr 2007, 04:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by atanum141

Awesome Review as usual Tim tho i have a few questions:
1)In terms of an older system( 939 x4200,2gig ram...etc) Would this be a viable upgrade to play future games at averagely decent settings? E.G. Crysis?

DirectX 10 is such a massive unknown and the problem here is that its DirectX 9 performance is a little shady too - sometimes it's where you would expect, other times it's low. I need to do some more shader heavy benchmarking when I get back home.

Quote:

2)Ive got a 7800GTX and would it be worth the upgrade? or would i just be wasting my money on Dx10? Or should i at lest wait for ATi based stuffs?

There is no DirectX 10 content yet, so because this isn't a dead-certain DirectX 9 performer it just doesn't make sense to buy right now if you're a gamer. By the time DirectX 10 content turns up, there will be benchmarks out there comparing ATI and Nvidia's hardware. As for upgrading from a 7800 GTX - you'll get no more performance, it'll just be added DirectX 10 functionality. If you want more performance, go for the 8800 GTS 320MB.

Quote:

Ive seen the various GTS on sale @ Ebuyer for under £130/40 and add to the fact that you can get £10 off the purchase makes sense to me.

£130 is a reasonable price, but again, no DX10 content and shady DX9 performance against the X1950 Pro (which can be bought for £110ish) makes the decision a tricky one. It's all about balancing it up and price in the mid-range is incredibly important.

zr_ox · 18th Apr 2007, 05:58

Nice review but where is the 8800 Ultra or 8850 that everyone's been talking about? My 90 day step-up is running down

Tim S · 18th Apr 2007, 06:34

you'll have to wait for that one

BioSniper · 18th Apr 2007, 07:21

Seems like the 7900GS still out performs it all be it on a DX9 code path, Kind of reminds me of when the 9500 was out an ATI launched the 9600 which was very slightly slower in all aspects.
Kind of a shame really.

17th Apr 2007, 19:25	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...600_gts/1.html __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

17th Apr 2007, 19:35	#2
MiNiMaL_FuSS I Mod, Therefore I Own Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Posts: 3,072	bit disapointed really, expected these as next gen cards to be up there with the likes of the 7900's....8800 320mb still seems the best way to go if you must have DX10...plus they can be got for around £160 now. __________________ -Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Take the Present as a Gift-

17th Apr 2007, 19:36	#3
DougEdey I pwn all your storage Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Southampton Posts: 13,933	Maybe it's just me, but since Graphics cards used to have between 128MB and 256MB of RAM on them and they ran fine, why is it that a 320MB card which is replacing the equivalent 128MB card has difficulties with textures? __________________ Burnout: Paradise Stats!XBL: DougEdey Bindi PSN ID: DougEdey Twitter

17th Apr 2007, 20:16	#5
atanum141 I fapped to your post! Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: London Posts: 7,538	Awesome Review as usual Tim tho i have a few questions: 1)In terms of an older system( 939 x4200,2gig ram...etc) Would this be a viable upgrade to play future games at averagely decent settings? E.G. Crysis? 2)Ive got a 7800GTX and would it be worth the upgrade? or would i just be wasting my money on Dx10? Or should i at lest wait for ATi based stuffs? Ive seen the various GTS on sale @ Ebuyer for under £130/40 and add to the fact that you can get £10 off the purchase makes sense to me. __________________ Welcome to Thunderdome, B*tch XBL: atanum141

17th Apr 2007, 20:45	#6
wafflesomd Hypermodder Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 993	Why can't someone just make a card that clocks at like, 5ghz, has like, 1024 pipelines, and 2 gigs of ram. Is it it me, or are cards just not progressing as much as they used to. I remember back in the day, of th FX series, and my old ati 9700pro, that thing ran anything, and can still hold its own in game that use the source engine, as well as others. __________________ http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/1466/goldie.gif

17th Apr 2007, 20:01	#4
Bluephoenix Spoon? What spoon? Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Daytona Beach, FL Posts: 936	one thing this does tell us is where NVidia may be going with the supposed 'Ultra' model or the 8900. It will probably be a G80 scale or larger in terms of sp clusters, but have the increased texture address sections and the new VP. as far as the article itself it looks like gamers will go for the 8800GTS models and the 8600 will be the baby of the HTPC guys. (especially with the HDMI, new VP, and HDCP/Vista Media support)

17th Apr 2007, 21:32	#7
z3rb +4 str +4 stam Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Perth, Scotland Posts: 299	I'm disapointed. I think i'm gonna need an 8800 GTS 320Mb instead D: __________________ o hay

17th Apr 2007, 22:28	#8
pendragon I pickle they Join Date: May 2004 Location: Massachusetts,usa Posts: 631	at the price point it's at.. the 8600 is just not worth it when 8800gts 320 gives you so much more for a tad more money :-/ .....well, unless you're a hardcore video editor __________________ -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- GCS d-@ s-:>: a- C++$ UL---@ P++>+++++$ L+ E----@ W+++ N o? K? w++>+++++ O---@ M-- V? PS--() PE+@ Y? PGP-@ t+(+++) 5(+)@ X@ R+(++) tv@ b++ DI@ D++ G e++>+++++ h! r(%) y? ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

17th Apr 2007, 22:41	#9
DXR_13KE Madeira's banana is the best!!! Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Madeira ; Portugal Posts: 6,471	a hint: FOR THE SAKE OF F* ATI/AMD LAUNCH THAT GRAPHIC CARD ALREADY!!!!! sorry. __________________ Renegade X - 0.40 Release!** <---- CLICK!

17th Apr 2007, 23:06	#10
Mathmarauder Supermodder Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Houghton, MI Posts: 355	No bit-tech seal or ranking out of 10, I'm a little disappointed and I guess I will wait to see the offering from ATI in may.

17th Apr 2007, 23:45	#11
ikra Multimodder Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: notts, uk Posts: 181	heh... waiting game this is... for the prices, drivers, and the competitor i.e. ati(obviously) 8600 aint worth teh money

18th Apr 2007, 00:41	#12
LabRat1 Multimodder Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Glass house Posts: 246	No agp version at this price point? I find that strange __________________ Bit-Tech IRC L A B _ R A T [/url]

18th Apr 2007, 01:27	#14
Muunsyr Minimodder Join Date: May 2005 Location: Vic. Australia Posts: 36	Glad to see my 7900GTX is holding up to the next gen cards. It certainly hit my wallet with everything it had. Maybe I'll get another one (2nd hand?) to keep it company before I go DX10...

18th Apr 2007, 01:35	#15
Mathmarauder Supermodder Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Houghton, MI Posts: 355	I would like to know how these perform in sli, any plans to test this later Tim?

18th Apr 2007, 05:58	#18
zr_ox Whooolapoook Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Stalking Orco Posts: 1,117	Nice review but where is the 8800 Ultra or 8850 that everyone's been talking about? My 90 day step-up is running down __________________ 0ptimizm :PC under review

18th Apr 2007, 06:34	#19
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	you'll have to wait for that one __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

18th Apr 2007, 07:21	#20
BioSniper I Mod, Therefore I Own Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Somewhere in the south Posts: 3,454	Seems like the 7900GS still out performs it all be it on a DX9 code path, Kind of reminds me of when the 9500 was out an ATI launched the 9600 which was very slightly slower in all aspects. Kind of a shame really. __________________ My Flickr :: Bit-tech Flickr Wii: 1792 1527 2926 7945 :: Xbox Live: BioSnipr :: PSN: Biosnipr