Is this Geforce 8500 a good deal?

Question

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3048554&Tab=0&NoMapp=0

seems ungodly cheap. There has to be a catch right?

My friend wants to know if he should get that card or this 7600 gt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130073

Answer 1

Don't be lured in by the fact that the first number is an 8, that is a low end card. Every generation of cards usually has high end, midrange, and low end cards, and that is the low end card for the 8000 series right now. The only situation that it would be better is if you had an actual DirectX 10, in which case you would need it to use the DX10 features, but those games aren't even out yet. The 7600 is actually about twice as fast if you look at the fillrate and memory bandwidth. If you want DirectX 10, save up and get the 8600 at the very least.

Answer 2

i'd go for the 8500 because it supports directX10
it does seem incredibly cheap, probably because it only has 256MB of video ram
its a whole series on from the 7600, so will be better than that

Answer 3

It is an excellent deal for around $110.00:
http://www.gamegiants.net/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=8500&x=0&y=0

However if you have a little more cash get the 8600:
http://www.gamegiants.net/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=8600&page=1&sort=3a





.

Answer 4

if you go to gamespot.com or google it, it will compare the 8500 video card to some other common one. in my prospective, i don't think your friend should get the 7600gt, he should settle for at least a 7800gt, it's not that much of a difference in price