i need a new graphics card.?

Question

i just bought a new computer and need to upgrade the graphics card so that i can play games because the computer came with the standard Intel graphics 950 (or whatever) and according to www.systemrequirementslab.com it really won't play anything that is new because of the shaders, MB, and stuff. i have already upgraded the power supply to 500watts. my question is is there really a differance between the GeForce 8400, 8500, and 8600 cards out there? yes, i know about higher core clock speed being better, higher memory interface, as well as the memory supposally being better, but is there really that much differance between the three?i'm not a hardcore gamer, i just want to play half-life, guild wars, halo, and some of the new games out there. i know that you can get both 8500 and 8600 in both 256 and 512, but would 8500-512 be the same as 8600-256?

Answer 1

Well i would suggest going to Tomshardware.com web site
they do a Review of the chipsets agest each other showing you the different scores they get for games and doing other stuff, its the best way to see the differents side by side

www.tomshardware.com
Its was the bible for Graphics cards last time i looked
so much information and all together, most reviews just compaire the cards with a dam dear card or a dirt cheap one and you cant really see the differents but with all the scores on the same chart you can see the differents of jumping makes or modle or even memory size.

Answer 2

That's right, its an onboard graphic driver which is totally not for gaming.

If you're into gaming, bare minimum is 8600 GT, nothing less.

And yes, there's a difference between those 4 digit number, they reflect the performance level. Higher the 4 digit is, the better the performance is.

Don't be fooled by the RAM size. VRAM is use as texture buffers, it stores texture. The higher the quality and resolution, the more texture buffer you need, that's true, BUT, note the word "store".

How fast you can process and render those texture depends on the graphic card processor (which is named by the 4 digit number, 8600 GT and so on). That means, more ram can store more texture only, but it doesn't make your graphic card any faster.

What I'm trying to say is for a not powerful at all GPU such as 8500, 512MB VRAM is useless, because it's not powerful enough to handle situation where you really use all 512MB, so as you set your game so it runs smoothly on that card, you will not use even half of that, which means you pay for the extra RAM size for nothing.

8600 GT will outperform it because its a faster GPU, 256MB is just nice for this graphic card.

So its up to your budget, if you are on limited budget, 8600GT is a ok card for today's modern game. Crysis can run at medium setting. It looks great though.

If you have extra cash, you can get 8800 GT with 512MB (here, 8800GT is a much more powerful card, so it can utilize that 512MB VRAM). It's a very good card at a good price.

Answer 3

The 8500 256 will do just fine, the bigger ones are for heavier games.

Answer 4

I'm still rockin a GeForce 6600 and I'm playing games just fine, Halo, Half-Life, all those sorts.

Answer 5

Geforce 8600GT is midrange and will be good enough for most games.