8500gt vs 8600 gt

[sahildev]

I saw 2 graphics card 8500gt 512mb and 8600gt 256mb. Which one is better and i also read somewhere that 8500 outperforms 8600 at higher resolutions as it has 512mb in comparison to 256mb of 8600.

One what parameters does the performance of a card tested other than fps.?

is 8500gt 512mb anyway better for gaming than 8600gt 256mb?

 

[Quiksilver]

My money is on the 8600GT

 

[HOOfan 1]

8600GT has nearly twice the memory bandwidth of the 8500GT...so no.

The 8500GT is slower than a 7600GT and the 8600GT is nearly as fast as a 7900GS

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Google around for reviews of the 8500GT, and you will find that it is left in the dust by the 8600GT.

The 512mb on the 8500GT is for marketing, and nothing more; the 8500GT is simply not powerful enough to take proper advantage of that much memory.

 

[error8]

8500 GT is not for gaming, maybe for HTPC or internet browsing. The 8600 GT is way faster then the other one, but it's still a very weak card. Both of them are unable to play current games at high resolutions.

 

[hans007]

the 8600gt is like basically twice the power of a 8500GT.

the ram on the 8500GT wont be able to take advantage of the extra ram. not to mention most 8500GTs have ddr2 (maybe all not sure) so thats onl y800mhz or so, instead of the 1400 mhz memory on the 8600GT.

so in reality if you had 2 8500GT and SLId them it'd maybe be as fast as the 8600GT single card.

 

[sahildev]

and what about the comparison of 8600 256mb and 8600 512mb. Both are similar in cost.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Depends on if the card has DDR3 or DDR2, I would bet the 512mb has DDR2, so that makes it slower. Also, an 8600GT can't play well at the resolutions you'd need 512mb VRAM for.

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: sahildev
is 8500gt 512mb anyway better for gaming than 8600gt 256mb?

You can forget about the extra memory on the 8500gt - there are hardly any cases where it'll make a difference i.e. 8500gt 256mb is equally as sucky.

Most important factor here (gaming) is GPU, and 8600gt >> 8500gt. So the winner is 8600gt 256mb (preferrably with GDDR3 FTW).

 

[HOOfan 1]

Originally posted by: sahildev
and what about the comparison of 8600 256mb and 8600 512mb. Both are similar in cost.

Lets put it this way...

would you that have a PC with a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz and 4GB of RAM or a PC with a Core 2 Duo E6550 and 2GB of RAM?

 

[v8envy]

With the recent prices on real midrange graphics cards why are you even considering an 8500 for gaming? If it's not for gaming, then there isn't a huge difference between modern cards -- get whatever has the lowest price tag. For non-gaming 32 megs of vram is as good as 32 gigabytes.

I have no idea where you read a review showing an 8500 outperforming an 8600 at any resolution with any application in any practical way. If you remember, I'd like to point and laugh at the source. Neither of these cards is powerful enough for high res (read: over 1280x1024) with eye candy effects on, but the 8500 is probably more suited to 1024x768, no FSAA and low settings -- it's half the GPU hardware of the 8600. There are some benchmarks which won't run on a 256 meg card but you won't want to see them running on an 8500 either.

If this card is for gaming then look at the around $100 8800 series cards. Failing that, $60 will get you a 512 meg 2600XT or 8600GT.

 

[sahildev]

Originally posted by: HOOfan 1

Originally posted by: sahildev
and what about the comparison of 8600 256mb and 8600 512mb. Both are similar in cost.

Lets put it this way...

would you that have a PC with a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz and 4GB of RAM or a PC with a Core 2 Duo E6550 and 2GB of RAM?

good comparison..i got what you are trying to say.

And i read about 8500 outperforming 8600 was at hardwarezone.com and it showed that its performance was better in HD movies at very higg resolutions(1600 X). That is the reason why i asked it out of shear curiosity.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: sahildev

Originally posted by: HOOfan 1

Originally posted by: sahildev
and what about the comparison of 8600 256mb and 8600 512mb. Both are similar in cost.

Lets put it this way...

would you that have a PC with a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz and 4GB of RAM or a PC with a Core 2 Duo E6550 and 2GB of RAM?

good comparison..i got what you are trying to say.

And i read about 8500 outperforming 8600 was at hardwarezone.com and it showed that its performance was better in HD movies at very higg resolutions(1600 X). That is the reason why i asked it out of shear curiosity.

well that comparison is honestly less obvious as the video card one as theres probably a lot more real world cases where 4gb of ram woudl be useful on a 2.4 ghz p4, than there are where 512mb of ram on a 8500GT would be useful.

but yeah, generally for the resolutions and FSAA levels (i.e. 0 fsaa) you could run on a 8600gt 256mb and 512mb make no difference.