The BUDGET 8600gt thread.....

S

SAW

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 13, 2005
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As the title says, this is a thread about which card to get on a budget. Lets say $100 - $150, the closer to $100 the better.

I have a thread floating around about my troubles with eVGA and my 7900gt. I want to know what [H] thinks about the other card companies.

Determining factors for which card is best for cost, lets stick with......

:performance
Example = stock speeds and Overclockability.
:Heat
Example = Does the card heat up with stock speeds?
:Game Playability
Example = Can it play todays current games. Albeit not on high settings.

Details not to be included....

RMA's
Customer Support
Company popularity
Company policies, good or bad
Etc....

This thread is completely about the card and how well it will perform for cost spent.

If you have personally used or currently still are using a particular brand pointed out, please tell of your experiences. Likes/dislikes. Would you buy another card from said brand cause it performed well? Would you NOT buy another because the card performed not so well?


To start, I will NOT buy another eVGA card because of known flaws in their cards and problems with heat and artifacting.

Cards Ive been looking at and think will perform well are....

Asus http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121096 $116.99/ $101.99 with $15 rebate

MSI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127284R $104.99
Its an open box, but just a tad over a C note;)

PNY http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133199 $119.99/ $79.99 with $40 rebate. This card Ive had my eye on and havent read any bad reviews about it and with a $40 rebate placing this card at a mere $80 bucks, It will be hard NOT to get my monies worth out of it.

BFG http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143114 $139.99 This card has no bad reviews, however with no rebate, it sits at the top of the cost list.

Chaintech http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814145146 $114.99/ $89.99 with $25 rebate. This card has my eye too. Being 2nd cheapest on the list and similar specs, it would be a hard decision.

Gigabyte http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125082 $104.99 No rebate, however the card already comes with a Zalman fan/heatsink. Could this be a good thing or a bad thing?

XFX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150229 $109.99/ $79.99 with a $30 rebate. This is also one of the better clocked cards for the price straight outta the box. A good contender.

Comments welcome....
 
well. i know its not a 8600. but im gonna add my card in here too.

XFX 7600GT XXX Edition

The XXX Edition has already been slightly over clocked. Its running at 43C on idle.
Maxed, it has run (while playing FEAR on high settings) at 57C. its not a 8600, or a 8800, but for the 90 bucks i paid for it 5 months ago, i am very pleased.

I did take the little plastic plate thing off of the heatsink to help it cool by blowing down, instead of out. It is staying 3-4 degrees C colder without the plastic cover then with it.

Oh, and i might add, it can be overclocked more. More then the 'stock' overclocking

comment are welcome
 
I am considering getting one of the XFX 8600GTs. I'm guessing that the prices on these will go down once the 9600XT comes out (which should be soon.)
 
the xfx has a free company of heroes game w/ purchase plus it's only 80 bucks AR. I am running an x800 GTO right now and I think the bang/buck for an upgrade would be pretty great in my situation.
 
If you want to take a chance, you could always buy one off of eBay or the FS/FT section; that would probably save you some money. ;)

I like non-reference cooling in general, as it tends to be better. That would be the ASUS if you want a 8600 GT new, or the MSI if you don't mind open-box, as it is a 8600 GTS, which is better than a plain 8600 GT, albeit there isn't really any difference between them if they're at the same speeds (which they're not by default).

Edit: The Gigabyte would also be nice; link's wrong though, real link is here. Your current Gigabyte link comes up with Chinatech for me.
 
Don't laugh, but in the sub-$150 market your best bet is to either pick up a 2900 if you can still find one, or else find a 1900/1950 that's been sitting on a shelf. A GTS-SLI setup will just barely compete with a 1900/1950XT single card, let alone the single GT you are considering.

http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/graphics-cards/sapphire-x1950-pro/5/
Closer, depending on test, but the 1900's still lead: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/486/13/

On a side-note:
You may even want to look into the 2900GT (or with better warranty for the same price after rebate).
While not a scorcher, it'll keep up with the 1900's while adding DX10 support.
 
farfromhome said:
Edit: The Gigabyte would also be nice; link's wrong though, real link is here. Your current Gigabyte link comes up with Chinatech for me.
Click to expand...

Sorry bout that, fixed the link and price.

Personally, Im not into buying second hand electronics unless its someone I know personally and trust, otherwise, its GOT to be new and in a box.

As for the ATI cards. I should have made a note when I first made this thread that this is for all nVidia cards only. Thats not to say ATI are bad cards, but for this particular thread, lets stick with nVidia.

Im interested in seeing which card is the better performer. The cards do not have to be overclocked, just straight outta the box, plug and play, how's the performance?

Im still leaning more towards the Chaintech, MSI, and XFX. Since I do not overclock at all and when I do play, I almost never mess with the game settings, aside from setting it to 1280x1024 display. I usually just allow the defaults on the games I play and even at those settings, Id have to say, the games still look damn good.

After reading thru my own links and reading up on the comments, im starting to think spending more than $150 bucks really isnt required at all to play TF2 and other games. Id say, IMO, the only reason to get a higher caliber card is if you WERE wanting to OC them. Since thats a no for me, Im really REALLY curious how these $80 cards will perform.
 
If you want fastest straight out of the box and don't mind mail-in rebates, why not just get that same MSI 8600 GTS, but new instead of open-box? Just $5 more after the rebate. I myself would avoid open-box unless you got that great a deal for it.

(Here is a review of it.)
 
farfromhome said:
If you want fastest straight out of the box and don't mind mail-in rebates, why not just get that same MSI 8600 GTS, but new instead of open-box? Just $5 more after the rebate. I myself would avoid open-box unless you got that great a deal for it.

(Here is a review of it.)
Click to expand...

Ahhh, good eye dude. I must have just not bothered to look at it cause I was scanning thru looking at those closer to $100 bucks. Just not reading the others at all.

That is a badass buy though. Something definately to consider.
 
I liked my 8600GT, and even went as far as using 2 in SLI.
I had EVGA, but would not buy evga again. The support, or lack of, that I get for my mobo and when I had the 8600's left a bad flavor.

I seriously would wait until the next round of cards come out. You will find a better deal at that point.
 
I did research the past 2 weeks before buying my new video card (from a 6600GT to a 8600GT)

The 8600GT, price+performance, is the BEST all around graphics card (I'm not into ATi cards because of past experience) as of Feb07. Plays Crysis pretty damn good, and its less than $100... 8500 is not much cheaper, but far lower in performance.

If I wouldn't of gotten the XFX 8600GT XXX, I would of gotten the 8800GT, the next best deal I'd say.

If you're looking to buy and don't know what to get...

8600GT < 8800GT < 8800GTX ... buy in which order you can afford! :p
 
There are a lot of naysayers out there on the 8600gt. Personally I think its a great buy for the price and the price is perfect for a used one. I got two for $105 shipped and the performance in SLI is fine with me. Some people are saying I should have just spent the money on an 8800gt. True the 8800gt is slightly better but at 2X the price. I don't need top of the line hardware and this is enough for the games I play. No need to throw money away.

But at this point in time now, if I was you, I would be looking at the 9600 series and see if you could pick one up for a good price.
 
ATF678 said:
There are a lot of naysayers out there on the 8600gt. Personally I think its a great buy for the price and the price is perfect for a used one. I got two for $105 shipped and the performance in SLI is fine with me. Some people are saying I should have just spent the money on an 8800gt. True the 8800gt is slightly better but at 2X the price. I don't need top of the line hardware and this is enough for the games I play. No need to throw money away.
Click to expand...

Running two 8600GTs in SLI is also 2x the price of a single 8600GT :rolleyes: 8800GT > 8600GT SLI (especially considering that the two options cost about the same).
 
Like I said in my post I paid $105 for two 8600GT. If you can get a brand new 8800GT for that same price now then point me to the link.
 
ATF678 said:
Like I said in my post I paid $105 for two 8600GT. If you can get a brand new 8800GT for that same price now then point me to the link.
Click to expand...

Ah, gotcha, I thought you were saying that you got two 8600GTs for $105/each, my bad, sorry about that :)

Where did you get $50 8600GTs from though?
 
I need to get an 8600GT for a backup card. Might get the XFX one.
 
i built my brother a budget gaming rig for xmas and he loves it. I centered it around the XFX 8600GT XXX version. E2180 OC'd to 3.0ghz with 2gb ram on a Gigabyte P35 board. Paid $79 for the card after rebate, and it plays everything at 1280x1024 fantastic. Now mind you hes a budget gamer, no 1680x1050 res and all that other crap like the rest of us :D But as far as this thread pertains to budget, I dont think you can get a better card at $80 price point imo.
 
ATF678 said:
But at this point in time now, if I was you, I would be looking at the 9600 series and see if you could pick one up for a good price.
Click to expand...
I'm trying to decide if I should get one of these 8600s for $80 AR, or wait for the 9600s that will be at least $150.
 
NIVO said:
i built my brother a budget gaming rig for xmas and he loves it. I centered it around the XFX 8600GT XXX version. E2180 OC'd to 3.0ghz with 2gb ram on a Gigabyte P35 board. Paid $79 for the card after rebate, and it plays everything at 1280x1024 fantastic. Now mind you hes a budget gamer, no 1680x1050 res and all that other crap like the rest of us :D But as far as this thread pertains to budget, I dont think you can get a better card at $80 price point imo.
Click to expand...

Ahh, finally, someone who has used an 8600gt.

So, it plays todays games, including TF2, pretty good ehh? Has your brother experienced any heat issues using the XFX card?
 
SAW said:
Ahh, finally, someone who has used an 8600gt.

So, it plays todays games, including TF2, pretty good ehh? Has your brother experienced any heat issues using the XFX card?
Click to expand...


no heat issues at all actually. I installed the system in my old Antec server case 1040BXII
There is virtually no heat buildup in the case thanks to the cool running E2180 even OC'd I have only heard the GT's fan speed up once and that was during benchmarking some video and assorted stuff. I still say for the price point at $80 it cant be beat. TF2 maxed at 1280x1024 no problems, COD4 maxed. Crysis, most medium settings, no AA, 8x AF and the frames are acceptable. SLI'd for $160 should allow you to sustain AA if not going over 1280 res. Anything above that and I cant answer. He is very satisfied. Good Luck in your decision(s) ahead.
 
NIVO said:
no heat issues at all actually. I installed the system in my old Antec server case 1040BXII
There is virtually no heat buildup in the case thanks to the cool running E2180 even OC'd I have only heard the GT's fan speed up once and that was during benchmarking some video and assorted stuff. I still say for the price point at $80 it cant be beat. TF2 maxed at 1280x1024 no problems, COD4 maxed. Crysis, most medium settings, no AA, 8x AF and the frames are acceptable. SLI'd for $160 should allow you to sustain AA if not going over 1280 res. Anything above that and I cant answer. He is very satisfied. Good Luck in your decision(s) ahead.
Click to expand...

Now THAT is what I like to hear.

I still cant make up my mind....If indeed I end up having to buy another card, should I get the MSI or the XFX. Both have damn good deals and if im not mistaken, the MSI card is slightly OC'ed out of the box. I dont hear to much info about the MSI cards. Why is that? Do most gamers buy their cards according to hype or actual stats?
 
I bought the XFX for a few reasons. It was the highest clocked version available at the time(and may still be?) and secondly for the warranty. I personally have nothing but success with XFX(of course you'll have those coming along and telling horror stories). So its mostly what you experience and what comes of it.
 
My good friend just built a new budget pc with an X2 3800 AMD and an 8600gt (bfg I think) and all he plays in the orange box. I didn't get to play TF2, but portal at 1680x1050 (his native res) with all graphical settings on high (AA turned off) it was playable, albeit a little sluggish at times. So i'm sure TF2 would perform a little better.

*edit* It is QUIET! His machine was almost innaudible while playing portal. It was nice, I'm used to my koolance exos 2 sucking in air at all times.
 
NIVO said:
no heat issues at all actually. I installed the system in my old Antec server case 1040BXII
There is virtually no heat buildup in the case thanks to the cool running E2180 even OC'd I have only heard the GT's fan speed up once and that was during benchmarking some video and assorted stuff. I still say for the price point at $80 it cant be beat. TF2 maxed at 1280x1024 no problems, COD4 maxed. Crysis, most medium settings, no AA, 8x AF and the frames are acceptable. SLI'd for $160 should allow you to sustain AA if not going over 1280 res. Anything above that and I cant answer. He is very satisfied. Good Luck in your decision(s) ahead.
Click to expand...

Weird I have the 8600gt xxx and the fan doesn't throttle o_O
 
me either, unfortunately.

I did get the orange box (mostly for portal), and HL2 ep 1 & 2 are pretty sweet but chugg along a bit. Plus I can't play any SM 3.0 games on this card, even with low settings. That's the main dealbreaker for me since I want to at least play the DEMOS for games that I don't have time to play. :D
 
I've just put a system for my in-laws with this Asus 8600GT 256mb video card. I was able to oc card to 640/825 from 540/700, I've replace the thermal paste with AC5, btw the HSF on it is very nice. The temps are about 40C at idle and 60C at load. The system is based on E2160 running at 2.8Ghz using stock HSF (I didn't want to go crazy) + 2Gb ram + DS3L. I've got ~5800 running 3dmark06. The only game I've tried was flatout2 at 1680*1050 with x4/x16 enabled running at around 40-50FPS :D. Also I've tried to play some *.mkv files without any issues. IMHO for the money it is a pretty solid card.
 
amd7674 said:
I've just put a system for my in-laws with this Asus 8600GT 256mb video card. I was able to oc card to 640/825 from 540/700, I've replace the thermal paste with AC5, btw the HSF on it is very nice. The temps are about 40C at idle and 60C at load. The system is based on E2160 running at 2.8Ghz using stock HSF (I didn't want to go crazy) + 2Gb ram + DS3L. I've got ~5800 running 3dmark06. The only game I've tried was flatout2 at 1680*1050 with x4/x16 enabled running at around 40-50FPS :D. Also I've tried to play some *.mkv files without any issues. IMHO for the money it is a pretty solid card.
Click to expand...

I was checking that exact card out yesterday. It looks like a sweet card.

After all the reviews Ive read (which must have been at least 100), I found ONE person talkin about heat issues. Id say thats some damn good evidence that if I bought this card, heat wouldnt be a problem.

We shall see what eVGA sends me for my 7900gt I RMA'ed. Hell, this card is so damn cheap and plays the games I currently want to play, buying this card anyways might be something I do despite what I get for my RMA.. Right now, im on my old Asus 5200 and ive never, not once had a problem with it. Ran all my games up to WoW without a hitch. I was forced to upgrade from that card, to my 7900gt because of AOE III. That game wouldnt even try to install without a better computer. I got a decent 3+ years out of that 5200.

So, for me, if I do choose to get the 8600 line, the brands Im looking at, in order from 1st on the list to 3rd, 1st being most probable Ill buy...

Asus
MSI
XFX

Thanks for all the input guys. Keep them coming....Id like to hear from personal used if possible.
 
I'm rebuilding my PC and was considering the 8600GTS.

What ever happened to the rumored Valentine's Day Launch of the 9600GT?

I was wondering if the 9600GT would be worth the wait or is it going to be much more power hungry than the 8600GTS?

I am building this system soon, but it will have to be powered by a single Antec Phantom 350.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz

Mobo: ABIT IP35 Pro

RAM: 8GB (4 sticks in all)

HDD: Two Drives new WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 version

Fans: One or Two Papst 4412 NGL 120mm fans.

Would the 9600GT require too much power?

-Ed
 
Will the 9500 GT also come out at the same time as the 9600 GT? I think the 9500 GT is a good alternative for the 8600 GT.
 
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