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8600gts or 7900gs

A

agentsmith101

Senior member
Ok so my previous question was answered in that 7900gs is better. New prices:

bfg 7900 gs oc= $110 AR
msi 8600 gts oc= $125 AR/AC

My question is will getting the 8600gts be better even though its similar in performace to 7900 gs...due to it being more futureproof?
 
I'm sticking with my 7900GS for now. By the time DX10 is ready for prime time there will be better cards on the market to handle it. I think this is one of those cases where it doesn't make sense to try and futureproof, especially if it comes at the price of current performance and value.

I toyed with the idea of going to from my 7900 to a X1950Pro, but I'm just going to OC my 7900 and stick with it. It runs everything just fine, including Oblivion maxed @ 1280x1024.
 
The 8600GTS is basically more futureproof in two ways:

1) DX10
2) HDCP

There have been constant put-downs that the DX10 game performance will stink. However, there isn't any DX10 performance at all with the 7900GS.

Nobody argues HDCP, tho'. So let's say that you buy one of these cards today, and down the road you want to buy a fast DX10 card. Plus, at that time you want to recycle your current card to build an MCE machine with either HD-DVD or Blu-ray...you're out of luck with the 7900GS. The 8600GTS would have a longer life in this scenario. For an additional $15 bucks, I suppose that's pretty good.
 
I <3 my 8600GTS. If money is an issue, buy the evga 8600GTS and upgrade within the 90 day window so getting that 8800 series card isn't to hard on the pockets at one time.
 
Definitely get the 8600gts. Future proofing aside you will have found yourself a better card.

The particular 8600gts has a much better cooling fan than the 7900 (meaning longer lifetime) and also exhausts air out the back! The fan is worth the $15 and that's on top of everything else you are getting. I also really like my silent 8600gts.
 
Futureproofing means not only having the required feature set but also the power to put those features to use. The 8600gts already has underwhelming performance in some DX9 games, how do you think it will do once DX10 shaders put even more stress on the card? Get the cheaper 7900gs and wait until there's a good midrange DX10 card available.
 
Originally posted by: Slugbait
The 8600GTS is basically more futureproof in two ways:

1) DX10
2) HDCP

There have been constant put-downs that the DX10 game performance will stink. However, there isn't any DX10 performance at all with the 7900GS.

Nobody argues HDCP, tho'. So let's say that you buy one of these cards today, and down the road you want to buy a fast DX10 card. Plus, at that time you want to recycle your current card to build an MCE machine with either HD-DVD or Blu-ray...you're out of luck with the 7900GS. The 8600GTS would have a longer life in this scenario. For an additional $15 bucks, I suppose that's pretty good.
Click to expand...

I agree with #2, but as far as considering the 8600gts because of dx10 I don't. What good is it having a dx10 card if you can only get 14 fps in a dx10 game? Maybe as dx10 and drivers mature the benchmarks will improve, but as of right now the 8600 series and hd 2600 appear to be dogs when it comes to dx10.
 
Originally posted by: munky
Futureproofing means not only having the required feature set but also the power to put those features to use. The 8600gts already has underwhelming performance in some DX9 games, how do you think it will do once DX10 shaders put even more stress on the card? Get the cheaper 7900gs and wait until there's a good midrange DX10 card available.
Click to expand...

With the 7900GS he would have no DX10 capability at all. Even if the 8600GTS won't be able to play all those great DX10 games that aren't even out yet, there may be programs in the future that take advantage of DX10 that the 8600GTS would be able to handle.

There's also the 100% offloading from the CPU when doing video. The 7900GS doesn't do that.
 
Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
Originally posted by: munky
Futureproofing means not only having the required feature set but also the power to put those features to use. The 8600gts already has underwhelming performance in some DX9 games, how do you think it will do once DX10 shaders put even more stress on the card? Get the cheaper 7900gs and wait until there's a good midrange DX10 card available.
Click to expand...

With the 7900GS he would have no DX10 capability at all. Even if the 8600GTS won't be able to play all those great DX10 games that aren't even out yet, there may be programs in the future that take advantage of DX10 that the 8600GTS would be able to handle.

There's also the 100% offloading from the CPU when doing video. The 7900GS doesn't do that.
Click to expand...

That's a valid point. What the OP should understand, however, is that the 8600gts may be a better choice for what it can do right now - high quality AF, HDR+AA (at low-medium resolutions) and better video offloading. But if the OP doesn't need those features now, and instead is looking to buy a card for the "future", the 8600gts is a bad choice.
 
Even if the 8600GTS is not a good choice for "future proofing" it's still a better card than the 7900GS. The 8600GTS is around the same performance as a 7950GT.

EVGA just upgraded me from a 7950GT to a 512MB 8600GTS. My games play the same if not just a little better. IQ with the 8600GTS is better as well.
 
Originally posted by: munky
Futureproofing means not only having the required feature set but also the power to put those features to use. The 8600gts already has underwhelming performance in some DX9 games, how do you think it will do once DX10 shaders put even more stress on the card? Get the cheaper 7900gs and wait until there's a good midrange DX10 card available.
Click to expand...

How dare you bring logic into this thread.
 
Originally posted by: sliderule
Originally posted by: Slugbait
The 8600GTS is basically more futureproof in two ways:

1) DX10
2) HDCP

There have been constant put-downs that the DX10 game performance will stink. However, there isn't any DX10 performance at all with the 7900GS.

Nobody argues HDCP, tho'. So let's say that you buy one of these cards today, and down the road you want to buy a fast DX10 card. Plus, at that time you want to recycle your current card to build an MCE machine with either HD-DVD or Blu-ray...you're out of luck with the 7900GS. The 8600GTS would have a longer life in this scenario. For an additional $15 bucks, I suppose that's pretty good.
Click to expand...

I agree with #2, but as far as considering the 8600gts because of dx10 I don't. What good is it having a dx10 card if you can only get 14 fps in a dx10 game? Maybe as dx10 and drivers mature the benchmarks will improve, but as of right now the 8600 series and hd 2600 appear to be dogs when it comes to dx10.
Click to expand...

Copy-n-paste:
There have been constant put-downs that the DX10 game performance will stink. However, there isn't any DX10 performance at all with the 7900GS.
Click to expand...

Hard to believe, but some people play games with less powerful cards (many of them post "should I upgrade" threads to this forum). Some games will have better performance than others. But in the meantime, until those DX10 games hit the shelves, the 8600GTS has very similar gaming performance to the 7900GS.

And gamers usually upgrade...so the 8600GTS would be a fine choice for today, and have a useful life later in an HTPC that's designed for HDCP.
 
If the price difference is $15, get the 8600GTS. It's slightly faster, decodes HD video, has a better cooler, and has HDCP.
 
I just overclocked my 7900GS insane - to 700/900 clocks. If an 8600gts can compete with that at 1680x1050 I would have gotten that... but I have read the 8600gts chokes beyond 1280x1024.

I did spend on cooling, but I spent a whole $15 shipped for a VF900 Fata1ty which was a great deal, which is really the only reason I got that high. But most people can get away with 600/800 off stock cooling on their 7900GS.

But I honestly don't know. Depends on what you do. They'll perform similar, just don't expect to play DX10 (with either).

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/486/1/ (7900GS & 8600GTS trading - I'm guessing this is stock settings for the cards)
 
From all the reviews I've seen, the 8600GTS is on par with the 7900GT, but the 7950GT and X1950XT still perform a little better. The 8600GTS can do DX10 though (even if it can't play DX10 games very well) while the 7950 and X1950XT will never be able to do DX10. The 8600GTS has better IQ than the 7950GT and X1950XT. Also it runs 1920x1200 pretty well. I've been playing WoW, BF2142 and Elder Scrolls just fine on my 512MB 8600GTS.
 
I have a 8600GTS OC stock clocks are 710/1000 oc's to 800/1195 and preforms much better then my 7800GT in almost all games. Plus the videoplayback is impressive.
 
Originally posted by: Slugbait
BTW, where is this deal for the 8600GTS located?
Click to expand...

Well thanks for all the help...When I posted this apparently the PAYPAL20 code was back on at newegg for about half a day. I bought RAM but in the time I was researching which card to get...the code was gone 🙁

I guess ill just get the 7900gs...
 
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