Does a 8500GT really PWN a 6600GT?

[themisfit610]

8500 and 8600 series are complete failures

That's simply not true. Maybe from a gaming perspective, but those aren't really gaming cards IMHO. They are great for HTPC people, considering the HD-DVD / Blu-ray decoding acceleration that's simply mind-blowing. Not even a Core 2 Duo can decode and display 40mbps H.264 in real time, the fact that a little passively cooled GPU can do it in real time is pretty astonishing. Also, they have HDCP, which is required without using AnyDVD HD. Perfect solution to the average user who doesnt game much but wants to watch HD in the future.

~MiSfit

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: BernardP
8500GT<7600GS=6600GT

Certainly no PWNING going on here

8500GT PWNs all!.................for a HTPC (HDCP, H.264 hardware acceleration, etc. etc.).

 

[superbooga]

Even from a gaming perspective it's not a failure. It's a bit of a disappointment because while the 6600GT and 7600GT were basically half of a 6800 and 7800, respectively, the 8600 is a quarter of the 8800GTX.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: themisfit610

8500 and 8600 series are complete failures

That's simply not true. Maybe from a gaming perspective, but those aren't really gaming cards IMHO. They are great for HTPC people, considering the HD-DVD / Blu-ray decoding acceleration that's simply mind-blowing. Not even a Core 2 Duo can decode and display 40mbps H.264 in real time, the fact that a little passively cooled GPU can do it in real time is pretty astonishing. Also, they have HDCP, which is required without using AnyDVD HD. Perfect solution to the average user who doesnt game much but wants to watch HD in the future.~MiSfit

It's not the future is it? It's today. Today, C2D above 2.13ghz will play any HD movie without dropping frames. I dont see any benefit of hardware acceleration of these cards. And how many people actually own HD-DVD or Blu-ray players? By the time these items are mainstream, we'll be playing with Geforce 10-11. Plus who is going to spend $150-200 just for video acceleration on 8600GT/S while getting creamed in what these products are made for - playing games.

 

[stepone]

A bog standard 8500gt is not that good but will probably come in slightly better/on par with a 6600gt.

I have a Gainward 8500GT which is factory OC'd to:
GPU: 600Mhz, GDDR3 @1200Mhz & is passively cooled. A 150Mhz OC on the GPU & GDDR3@ 1200mhz in place of the bog standard 800Mhz ddr2 memory gives me about the same performance of a 7600GT.

In the doom 3 timedemo1 benchmark @1024x768 ultra quality I get 70.6fps (with an e6420@ stock & 2gb ddr2800 ram), and have yet to find a game which won't run @ playable frame rates in the 1280x768 (my monitors default res) medium quality area.

I'm only a casual gamer and not looking to play games @ a higher res than 1280x768 so the Gainward 8500GT is more than sufficient for me.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: themisfit610

8500 and 8600 series are complete failures

That's simply not true. Maybe from a gaming perspective, but those aren't really gaming cards IMHO. They are great for HTPC people, considering the HD-DVD / Blu-ray decoding acceleration that's simply mind-blowing. Not even a Core 2 Duo can decode and display 40mbps H.264 in real time, the fact that a little passively cooled GPU can do it in real time is pretty astonishing. Also, they have HDCP, which is required without using AnyDVD HD. Perfect solution to the average user who doesnt game much but wants to watch HD in the future.~MiSfit

It's not the future is it? It's today. Today, C2D above 2.13ghz will play any HD movie without dropping frames. I dont see any benefit of hardware acceleration of these cards. And how many people actually own HD-DVD or Blu-ray players? By the time these items are mainstream, we'll be playing with Geforce 10-11. Plus who is going to spend $150-200 just for video acceleration on 8600GT/S while getting creamed in what these products are made for - playing games.

I think the X1950Pro is a much better gaming card than the 8600GT/GTS, but for HD video, the 8500/8600 is pretty nice. Playback uses a fraction of the cpu power that it does without the hd hardware acceleration, and that cpu power lets your system remain responsive and available to do other things, like browse the net on a 2nd screen, burn/encode a dvd, etc, while you play your HD video.

 

[coolpurplefan]

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: BernardP
8500GT<7600GS=6600GT

Certainly no PWNING going on here

Well.. I'd sort of have to differ here.

6600GT + Quake 4 = nearly unplayable even at 800x600 (10-15fps)

Same system upgraded to 8500GT (was like $86 I think) = totally playable at 1280x1024, most settings medium to high, no AA of course. Probably swings between 25-45 fps.

I'd say that the 8500GT is easily twice the speed of the 6600GT, if not more.

EDIT: Definitely more Check this : http://www.gpureview.com/show_...hp?card1=187&card2=513

I call BS. I played Quake4 and Doom3 on a plain 6600 which is much weaker than the 6600gt. I played at 1024x768 on high settings with no AA and averaged around 40 fps in Quake4 and well over 40 fps in the Doom3 timedemo. Your comment about the 8500gt being twice as fast the 6600gt is so WRONG that its hilarious.



EDIT: here is just a couple reviews http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/452/7 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.p...article&item=695&num=4 and they clearly show the 6600gt BEATING the 8500gt at high settings in Quake4 and Doom3. This is why peoples opinions are almost useless.

Hey, thanks for that review. lol, I find it funny how the X1650 XT really hands it to some other cards. I mean, that video card is kind of cheap right now. I know I've bragged before about having the fanless model of this card but this confims I got an OK buy (plus the silence, HIS iSilence II model).

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: A554SS1N

Originally posted by: BernardP
8500GT<7600GS=6600GT

8500GT >= 7600GS > 6600GT

Try looking at some reviews rather than looking at specs and guessing.

Haven't you looked at the review I had already posted above your post?

For your convenience

In almost all actual game benchmarks (synthetics are...synthetic...), the 6600GT and 7600GS are in the same ballpark, while the 8500GT is consistently below.

 

[hans007]

i would figure it could win in shader heavy games like oblivion. now id ont have an 8500gt, but i know an 8600gt is better than a 7900gt at really only that game and a few others that need tons of shaders. a 8600gts is quite a bit faster so i think for nex gen type games the 8 series equivalent cards are better than older ones.

the 8500gt and 8400gs for that matter, are not really the "mid range " card though., technically the 8600gt and 8600gts are. the 8400gs/8500gt are more like replacements for the 7300le/gs and the 7300gt which i think its a good replacement for.

a 7600gs is still about an $80 card, and I suppose given $80 i'd probably get the 8500gt since depending on the game they are pretty close in speed and the 8500gt probably uses less power and has all the HD processing stuff.