8500GT question

[2fast4all]

Im thinking of buying a new gfx card sometime and im wondering should I go for a 8500GT 512mb or a radeon 2600 series card. I have around $200 from chinese new years lol and wanna upgrade to something current. My 6600GT is getting old for the new stuff today, its overclocked and still kinda lags in UT3 and cod 4 sometimes. They say the 8500GT has SLI but I see no sli slot on the card Im gonna buy at curcut city or best buy since i live close to them. I would like to buy from newegg but no credit card and im still in high school. So what do you people think?

Thanks.

 

[silent-circuit]

$200 is /crazy/ for an 8500GT. Do not get one of those things. They're horrible for gaming -- slower in many cases than your current card. The Radeon HD 2600 isn't much if any better.

You're looking for a Radeon HD 3850 512MB at very least, with a Radeon HD 3870 512MB or 8800GT 512MB being ideal... and very doable for $200 or a little more. A barely used still under warranty Radeon HD 3850 should run $150 or so shipped via the forums here, potentially less. Watch the FS/FT section if you don't have a credit card -- just make sure whoever you deal with has lots of Heatware and it's all positive. Then send a money order from the post office to whoever you're buying from. You can use cash for that.

 

[HardwareGuru]

Man a 6600GT to 8500GT is not much of an upgrade. You practically won't notice a difference as they are about the same. The 2600 Pro is better than the 8500GT but, not for $200. Most of the local retail stores don't carry a good line of gaming cards. You mainly see the low end entry level type cards. Most of us on here would recommend at least an HD 3850