2600XT?

Rustynuts said:
Is this a decent upgrade for the time being (currently have an X850)? Found these two at Newegg, HIS & MSI. Never bought a card from either of these, any good? The MSI card shows GDDR4 memory.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161174

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127303
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Well, the HD 2600 XT should be faster in some situations, but it's not a decent upgrade in any way. Unless you need DX10 and hardware decoding capabilities, keep your X850.
 
I believe my x850 is only SM2. I get the tell tale graphical errors in Bioshock that requires SM3. I know there's a pseudo patch floating around, but would rather prepare for DX10 (although I don't have Vista yet)

Plus I just got a Dell 2407 monitor and may need more horsepower to run my old games at high rez!
 
Rustynuts said:
I believe my x850 is only SM2. I get the tell tale graphical errors in Bioshock that requires SM3. I know there's a pseudo patch floating around, but would rather prepare for DX10 (although I don't have Vista yet)
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The 2600xt is probably about just as fast as your x850, but it will be able to use newer technology (such as SM3 and dx10).

So it's not really an upgrade, more of a lateral movement with more benefits.

It should be said that when screaming dx10 games come around, the 2600xt is not going to run them well...
 
I don't understand how the 2600 would not kick the 850? It has 390 million transistors versus 160 mill. And I believe my old card is only 256M ram at best, the 2600 is 512M. I know it's not a top line card, but it's only one step down from the 2900. Rather not spend $400 on a card right now.
 
It's going to be substantially faster in some games and slower in others. Your 850XT is a 16 pipeline card on a 256bit bus, whereas the 2600XT is an 8 pipeline card on a 128bit bus and a lot of shader power to back it up. That's where the difference will be. In shader heavy games, the 2600XT is going to be pretty strong. Aside from that, well, not so much. :)

ATI's latest hardware isn't exactly the greatest. You can't judge the performance from specs alone. The Radeon x1950 has 384 million transistors and blows away the 2600XT in performance. The 7900GTX has 290 million transistors and demolishes it in the benches too.

RAM size also means nothing in terms of performance unless the game uses a ton of texture memory or you're running at super high resolution. There aren't a lot of games that stress more than 256mb at the moment, but the next generation of games will.
 
The only 86xx card I would go with is the 8600GTS, and even then I'd be hesitant. Both AMD and Nvidia midrange products (2600XT, 8600GT/GTS) are fairly lackluster because they're both cripped by their 128bit buses. There is an enormous performance difference between the 2600XT --> 2900XT and the 8600GTS --> 8800GTS video cards.

No. Get a 8800GTS if you want anything decent for a upgrade.
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Heed this man's advice, for he speaketh the truth.
 
So, should I just get the 320MB 8800GTS (under $300) or get one more future proof like the 640MB or 768MB versions (mucho dinero!)
 
Rustynuts said:
I don't understand how the 2600 would not kick the 850? It has 390 million transistors versus 160 mill. And I believe my old card is only 256M ram at best, the 2600 is 512M. I know it's not a top line card, but it's only one step down from the 2900. Rather not spend $400 on a card right now.
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That doesn't really matter. The HD 2600 XT has hardware decoding capabilities, which obviously take some transistors. The X850 does not. Also, do NOT buy mid-range cards based on the amount of VRAM. You'll pay more and get virtually nothing in performance.

If you want an upgrade over your X850 and want a DX10 card without breaking the bank, get a 8600 GTS or 8800 GTS 320. The GTS 320 is actually the best bang for your buck. As I like to call it, it's the high-end for the poor. It's a full blown GTS 640, with half the VRAM, for $100 less.
If DX10 doesn't matter, you still have cards, such as 7900 GS/7950 GT or even the X1950 Pro/XT. They are all very cheap now and are a considerable upgrade from your X850.
 
Rustynuts said:
So, should I just get the 320MB 8800GTS (under $300) or get one more future proof like the 640MB or 768MB versions (mucho dinero!)
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The GTS 320, will be more than enough for the time being, but yes, the GTS 640 is more "future" proof, since it has more VRAM, which no doubt, will be useful in games to come. Other than that, both GTS 320 and GTS 640 are exactly the same.
 
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