X1800GTO vs 8600GT

[bimmerbill]

I'm running an X1800GTO but just acquired a Gigabyte GeForce 8600GT (passive cooled) video card. Is the 8600GT better for gaming or should I build a home theater PC with it? Reviews seem to say its a good video decoder but low end gaming card. It is DX10 tho, and the X1800GTO is DX9...

XP system, mostly RTS games and occasional WoW style games.

Thanks!

 

[badge]

I'm running an X1800GTO but just acquired a Gigabyte GeForce 8600GT (passive cooled) video card. Is the 8600GT better for gaming or should I build a home theater PC with it? Reviews seem to say its a good video decoder but low end gaming card. It is DX10 tho, and the X1800GTO is DX9...

XP system, mostly RTS games and occasional WoW style games.

Thanks!

Tom's VGA charts benchmark the two using a number of games/applications.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=733&model2=855&chart=311

 

[4745454b]

As I suspected, the x1800GTO is faster, but usually just barely. The 8600GT won two of the benchies at LCD resolutions, but the x1800GTO was usually better.

I think the question becomes how far either card will overclock. If you can unlock that GTO and turn it into an x1800XL/XT, then that card is much better. Even if you can only overclock the frequencies, it might be enough to keep it on top of the 8600GT. Seeing as you already have both cards, test them. Install one and see how fast it runs your games. Overclock and see how much better it is, if you don't mind overclocking. Swap the other card in and repeat. I suspect that if you put a fan on the 8600GT you could get it to overclock to nearly GTS speeds. Assuming you don't or can't unlock the x1800GTO, the 8600GT would probably then be the faster card.

 

[bimmerbill]

Thanks for the info and the link. I had forgotton about that interactive benchmarking chart.
What about the 8600GT being DX10 capable? That will affect only games that can work in DX10, right?

 

[oswold]

Yes of course, but it may not be able to perform well in DX10, so most will end up having to disable some of the high end effects anyway to make it playable, which will probably make it look worse than DX9 with all effect enabled in the first place.