hello guys and girls. i think it's time to upgrade my graphics card for my already new system as i want to do better gaming. i've been thinking of buying the 8600gt 512mb. then i noticed that the 8600gts 256mb is in a very close price range.. which of the 2 do you think is better? or please recommend a good alternative in that price range
2007-11-11 09:17:39 · 3 answers · asked by giannhsfgr 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
That 8600GT should be nice if its 512Mb is ddr3. Then just overclock it to GTS performance. Sample of what overclocking the 8600GT can achieve:
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4925
Otherwise, if it is just ddr2, it would be a slow card.
2007-11-11 09:48:52 · answer #1 · answered by Karz 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'd suggest that you go with a factory OC GTS. That way you're approaching the performance of the next gen boards that are too pricey right now without having to do the OCing yourself and risk burning something out. Just remember that most of these reviews of OCing boards only test a few games, yet I've read where some games are sensitive to the OC state of the card for whatever reason. Also, when I bought my board, I found that the thermal paste between the heat sink and the main chips was dried out, and I immediately replaced it with professional paste. This is a little known fact: cheap thermal paste pervades a lot of new equipment. This causes the boards to run hotter, so OCing them is more likely to cause a burnout. This can happen with the mobo chipset also. Check both before you OC.
The best way to get the cheapest GTS card is not to buy the $150 card, but buy the $200 card with the $50 rebate. Use Newegg as they are extremely reliable and provide good consumer reviews of the companies giving the rebate. For example, I'll never purchase a XFX graphics card again since they totally ripped me off on the rebate. That's probably why they're ALWAYS giving rebate offers; they never follow through with them!
2007-11-11 18:45:02 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
given those options, I would say that you should get the 512 mb 8600gt, unless you have a lot of fast ram on your computer and the cards (and your motherboard) support turbocache, then it would be a more difficult decision. It also depends on the manufacturer of the cards.
2007-11-11 17:26:18 · answer #3 · answered by jamesccostello 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋