would it be worth it

F

forrehmmnd

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 25, 2007
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would it be worth swapping out my aging radeon x850xt pe for a high end 8600 gts (the fastest i can find). i dont play at very high resolution (1280x1024, max my monitor does) but i would like to use direct x10. i was thinking about getting vista and the only reason i would upgrade is for dx10.

i was thinking something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130086
 
It would be an OK upgrade. I loved my x850xt, but my x1900gt was a nice upgrade. Depending on the game, it runs about the same as a x1900pro.

Also, check your inbox.
 
Um, I wouldn't call those DX10 cards. They're DX10 capable, but I wouldn't expect decent performance on them.
 
AntiSocialMunky said:
Um, I wouldn't call those DX10 cards. They're DX10 capable, but I wouldn't expect decent performance on them.
Click to expand...

Just because its not an 8800 doesn't mean that it wont do well. Sure its not the quickest thing on the market, but it still does well enough. Its a midrange card.
 
AntiSocialMunky said:
I wish there were better mid-end cards :(, atleast they have good DX9 ability.
Click to expand...

I am investing a little hope in ATI's midrange when they drop in price.. hopefully they are a little better than nvidia's offerings. I do agree with you though. Nvidia could have done better with the price to performance on their midrange cards. It really seems like they just rehashed the old 7 series and slapped on dx10 capabilities.

8800gtx - NONE
8800gts - NONE
8600gts - 7950gt/7900gs depending on application.
8600gt - 7600gt.. roughly
8500gt - This shouldn't even have the GT badge.. this is a low end card. 7300gt range.

If you up the series.. please up the cards too instead of making ONE upgraded card and re-labeling the rest with a couple new features :(
 
8600gt from an X850PE....does noone realize what a bad upgrade that would be? You would gain about zero performance I believe, and only gain DX10 capability. Wait till the 9 series before uprading.
 
ex0du5 said:
8600gt from an X850PE....does noone realize what a bad upgrade that would be? You would gain about zero performance I believe, and only gain DX10 capability. Wait till the 9 series before uprading.
Click to expand...

Read the thread again.. hes asking about a 8600gts
 
Ahh didn't see the s......still don't think it's worth it though. It won't play DX10 games fast enough to warrant spending extra money on it.

Go with the 8800gts, or wait till the 9 series.

Actually come to think of it, the X1950pro is a much better card for the money than the 8600gts...though no DX10
 
I would wait unless you are desperate. Get a 8800gts when the price drops.
 
when would that be, i cant play a few new dx9 games either because i have such an old shader model
 
Look at the few benchmarks out there for DX10 games now, even at lower resolutions (1024x768 is low to my mind) the 8800 series cards can struggle from time to time. It's hard to say if this will change as developers learn the ins and outs of the new API -- clearly great visuals on higher end hardware at high resolutions and reasonable framerates are possible when looking at things like Crysis -- or if it's just a question of the first generation of new hardware not really being up to snuff for its 'intended' purpose. I for one hope the former rather than the latter, having just bought an 8800 GTX a month or so ago. It's still too early to say.

Considering that the 8600 GTS is for most intents and purposes an 8800 GTS with 1/3rd the stream processors (32 on the 8600 GTS, 96 on the 8800 GTS, 128 on the 8800 GTX) and less memory bandwidth, and looking at the performance figures for the 8800 GTS in many DX10 demos and the like, I could not recommend the 8600 GTS to anyone who intends to play any DX10 games via the DX10 renderpath, ever. Sure, some may work, but performance will be lackluster at best, completely impossible to play slideshow at worst, and it's just not worth the cries of "I've been duped!" that are sure to rise up in the next few months from all 8500/8600 owners who start up Crysis, BioShock, Call of Juarez, Lost Planet, or any UT3 engine game to find they have to play at 800x600 with low detail and little or no AA/AF for acceptable framerates. I've seen single digits from these cards below 1600x1200, and with that in mind, I would never buy one.

The only thing they do well, they do very well. They decode HD content. So if you want a cool running, quiet HTPC system that'll be serving a lot of HD content, and not doing much else, they're a good option. For anyone else, they're a waste.
 
Not worth it considering that even the high end DX10 cards struggle with DX10. In fact, in a Company of Heroes DX10 benchmark with the 8600GTS, it got around 5FPS! ATI's new mid-range cards aren't that much either.

So don't bother upgrading if all you want is DX10. Wait a while for Nvidia and ATI to push out better mid-range DX10 cards.
 
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