What's better - ATI 8500 or nVidia fx 5600???

[genEus]

Ordered an ATi 8500 from Overstock for $60, but then found a Mad Dog fx 5600 for $50. I have very limited time to cancel my 8500 order, if you guys tell me that the 5600 is better! Any reviews I see seem inconclusive to me to decide, but you'll know better!

Thanks.

 

[kurt454]

Too close to call. My vote would probably go towards the 8500. Unless it is one of those real Light Edition models with crappy ram. Then I would probably get the Nvidia card.

 

[MichaelZ]

odd ball comparison, but a 5600 Ultra would be better than a 8500. 5600 vanilla would be more or less on par i would think, maybe slightly better in a DX9 game.

 

[kylebisme]

and if the 5600 is an le, then it sucks bad.

 

[Rhenna]

The FX5600LE or 5600XT would be a "no-go". However, if your game collection contains some older titles, especially earlier Unreal-engine titles, (pre-UT2k3), then the FX5600 would be the better choice. All of the RADEONs, (R100, R2X0, R3X0), regardless of platform or driver, do a lousy job of rendering with these earlier games. This is coming from someone who owns these cards and "maps" for Unreal-engine games. I'd give the FX5600 a bit of an edge in OpenGL titles, too.

 

[genEus]

Well, really, I wanted a card that would be able to play today's games decently (not great, I understand)... A 9600 pro was too expensive at $100+, cuz I wanted to spend no more than $60... So, the 5600 deal is at tigerdirect and the 8500 at overstock.com... I initially thought the 5600 is MUCH better than the 8500 but I didn't get the replies that I expected, so I guess I'll just stick with the 8500 that I ordered.

Thanks.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Based on Tom's Chart Vol 3, the 8500 outperforms the 5600 in most cases, but I saw a deal a while ago on a 4200 TI for 60$, and that card is faster than both of these. You can search for it at pricegrabber.com, pricewatch.com and shopping.com.

 

[CraigRT]

I'd take the 8500.. I like the way they run.. similar in spec, but I always found the 8500 to run games very decently, whereas I've done a few 5600 systems and they're just kinda "meh"

just a personal observation though... benches may say something different... but I love my 8500