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Well since you said yourself the 8600gts is about the same price, you should atleast consider it. It can be passively cooled and can be used later for its video features. Unfortunately it is quite a step down from the 1950XT or 7950GT so those 2 are better performance wise
Im not sure about how credible the review is or anything, but looking around hardware forums i always see an abundance of threads asking for help on their x1950pro's, although it's subjective, i believe the rate is definetly higher than any of the other cards its being compared to.
Also...
I seriously don't know who told you this or how you came to that conclusion, but the 8600GTS is definitely a lot better than the 7600gt.Unless you meant the 8600GT, which yea is a tiny upgrade.
Anyway the 8600GTS isn't worth the upgrade if you don't need it anyway
While this is probably true, there is something to be said about the success of the 7600 and then the mediocrity of the 8600. Obviously nVidia set a new standard for themselves and failed to repeat. When people see the development of an industry go in a certain direction and then see it stop...
People don't like the 8600GTS for pretty logical reasons, If you look at the 2 midrange cards before it, the 6600GT and the 7600GT, those cards matched or even beat the previous HIGH end cards(9800XT and 6800U). The 8600GTS however struggles against the x1950pro and 7900gs and becomes and...
I'm not sure if this means the card is different or not, but why does it only list 1 feature under its specifications?
Edit: googled the ECS card and it seems to be legit preformance wise, the website doesnt give mention of or review the features though.