GeForce 8600: DirectX 10 For The Masses

Nvidia launches another set of graphics cards bringing the features of DirectX 10 and a new PureVideo engine to sub $230 consumers.

Linky no worky !! :?

Folks try this one maybe;
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/04/17/geforce_8600/

And seriously WTF !?! Only 3Dmk05, Doom3, FEAR and Oblivion?

And at least publish the composite sub scores of 3Dmk05 !!

Oohh final bungholiomark score on a card known to have exagerated 3Dmark results!?! C'Mon!

If you guys need more software let me know I can send you a few titles.

I guess my X1800XT is still a good card then.

according to anand`s review the gts can hardly keep up with the x1950 pro! and it should beat the 7900gt and x1900`s?

only in the most heavy games it can keep up with the x1950 pro.

this series is a joke (at these prices) because they are too slow for dx10 i think.

initial rumors said it would have 64 streaming processors. too bad they don`t have it because 32 turn into screaming processors since they can`t handle future games.

hopefully they lower the price for the 8800gts 640mb soon or release a 8800/8900gs so i have a upgrade path....

``YES! i bought a dx10 card for 200 dollars! no, i can`t play higher than 1024x768 because it will stutter....................!!! ``

Hopefully, the 8600 will do better in dx10, because those benchies just show that it's not worth it imo.

What's up with the bad link lol, someone finds it too hard to copy and paste without adding the letter "e" 3/4 of the way through..

Actually the 9800 had a vanilla, Pro, and XT... I hate it when big articles make simple mistakes... now on to reading the rest of it!

-mcg

Yeah, maybe.

And as for the price listed, who's saying $229 is the high side, the GTS is selling for $249 at BestBuy;



And yes that US$, the guy who took the pic works for the BB in MO.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthrea [...] ht=8600GTS

C'mon, talk about playing down the negative for a positive review.

Anyone dumb enough to pay full price at BB should take advantage of the 90day return policy and buy elsewhere.

For about $150-179 I'd recommend it for anyone building a new PC, but for over $200 I would say they are a waste of money and people should wait for their store to drop their prices to reflect the reality of their performance level.

this is the X1600 all over again, mediocre performance being pawned off as golden.

Why would you guys even bother posting benchmarks for the 8600's if you don't use a DX10 O.S. to do them with???

This is moronic! period! take these results with a grain of salt... really, they are worthless without a Vista O.S.

If the 8600's blow with Vista just as bad... so be it, but you guys have offered us NOTHING in the way of information today!

Very simple - this is done for those of us who are not willing to be beta testers of Vista just yet. There are no DX10 games out. Obviously hardware changes rather frequently, but some of us do try to hedge our bets and buy something that can be useful in the future. Yes I would like to see DX10 results just like you, but I'm not switching to Vista until someone shows me why bother. I have a 6600GT and it is not great with my 1920x1200 monitor. I would like a new card, but I don't want to out date myself at this time just in case I do change to Vista.

This review shows that the 8600 is not worth buying at this time. I believe nVidia knows this. They don't want to phase our the DX9 just yet.

Yeah I agree, I prefer Cleeve and Crashman's reviews, but it looks like Darren gets all the new stuff, and that Cleeve and Crash do the specialty reviews.

PS, I suspect Cleeve or Crashman will be doing the part-II PureVideo test mentioned in the middle of the review.

agreed, I also still enjoy my 1900xt512...


...honestly until we see dx10 in games and benchies it is really hard to tell if any of these 8 series are going to be good... right now the 8600 looks like not.

According to this (Linky), and considering the 8600GTS is on par with the X1950Pro (give or take, it depends), I'd say your X1800XT is still holding it. 8)

Here's another question I didn't see answered -- what is the power usage and heat impact of the new cards? Seems to me that they should be significantly cooler than the 8800 series, and draw far less power. The 80nm design should help with that, but it's not even mentioned.

Ape, I ask you this because your knowledge is far greater than mine and I want an opinion from someone I know I can trust:

Would you consider an 8600GTS a good upgrade from a 6600GT?
It has DX10 for upcoming games (even though we don't know yet how it performs in that scenario), and, a serious difference in performance. Plus PureVideo and stuff I don't care much about, but it's nice to have.

For all those DX10 apps out there, what are they gonna test, the Cascades Demo?

If the GF8800 is any example, the GF8600 likely performs better under WinXP, and the performance would be the same under vista.

And few gamers have made the jump to Vista, so the largest install base for this card is probably still the legions of XP gamers looking for DX9 performance, and will jump to Vista once there's actuall y a DX10 game out ther worth jumping for.

Actually there's info there, still need more benchies IMO, you just need to know what it means, and obviously you don't.

BTW did you not read the part about the late arriving Vista drivers and parts?

Yes, for $150-160, not much more.
I would suggest waiting a few weeks for the price drops, and then when it hit $159 then it's worthwhile, until then there's far better deals for $150 and less.

If this is a 2 years build then it's definitely the type of card you want, but wait for the X2600s to launch, you should know more about your long term options, the price of one or the other should drop, or drop more, and then start considering your decisions. But right now I see the GF8600GTS as the X1950GT equivalent ($130) and then tack on what you consider DX10 support worth (which I give a $20-30 value).

That's my thinking.

that is a good idea sailer, i didn't even think about the EVGA step up option

That's a good idea, but, I'm faaar from the Step-Up program (as "far" as "I'm in another continent" ). Nevertheless, a good idea.

I really expected the 8600 series to have 64 Stream Processors. 32 processors and a 128 bit bus seems too lame for 2007 mid-range.
That might give me another reason to upgrade my X1950XT.
At least the 8800 series has a good 96/128 processors.
There is a big gap between the 8800 and 8600. Is this what Nvidia wanted?

Bla bla bla, these test are not showing the full power of 8600 series, the drivers are not optimized, yet. 249$ price tag....

Just bought a BFG 8800GTS OC a week ago and it's still one of best performance for the money we can get, i don't need 1600x1200 since my 17' LCD can't go higher but i enjoy 1280x1024 (edited thx sojrner to remind me that mistake) full detail and i'm sure it will perform well under Vista crap when it's fixed (SP1)

The pricing of these poor cards show that Nvidia are simply taking advantage of ATI being worse than useless at this point - at least Nvidia actually get cards to market, the high price reflects that ATi have lost the plot over the last 6-8 months.


I bought a 7950GT from EVGA yesterday, i knew the 128bit bus would cripple the 8600 and it's price/performance ratio is total nonsense, i didn't even wait for benchies.

This way i get a better card than the 8600 for rental for 90 days, when DX10 games hit i can then afford a 8800GTS 640MB as i already have £150 towards it sitting in my PC!!!

Actually, you are one of the few people that this might make sense. If you need a better graphics card, plan on moving to Vista and play games, and don't already have something more advanced than the 6600GT... why not. you pay a little premium over the DX9 comparable performing card.


For me... I have a $130 7900GS. If this is the future of budget cards, there is no Vista and no DX10 in my future for a VERY long time. It took me two years after 9600 pro to upgrade to 6600GT, and a year more to upgrade to a 7900GS, and I don't play anything that maxes out my adapter.

Looking over at overclockers.com, I see tha they reference a report that most people upgrade even less than I do. $130 was the most I ever spent on a graphics card!

So you offer me two DX10 cards that (for the most part) perform worse than what I have for a $200 price tag.... you get no sale! What would it take to make a sale to me? I need 50% more performance than a 7900GS in DX9 for under $150 OR a game that requires DX10 that will perform acceptably with a 22" WS monitor.

Thus, they neither offer a performance incentive to upgrade, nor is there a DX10 or other NEED to upgrade. IF ATI follows suit with their vaporware, I think the graphics card manufacturers are in short term DSHT waiting for the "must have" game that will drive sales.

Folks, we have been listening to this DX10 crapola for a YEAR. I am beginning to think that PC gaming and the video card era have now peaked. Maybe consoles are the future, after all.

i think there is a nice little software nobody talks about in any review talk could reflect even just a litle the potential of cards: i t called Roboblitz.

That I would very much like to see - these cards could be good in an HTPC.

If you have a SLI board you could always get a 2nd one (Assuming you have a 8800gts 320mb edition).