How Strong Is The Geforce 8600gt?

Question

Hey All,

Atm I've got a geforce 7200gs, which really sucks lol, so I'm thinking of buying new card, a 8600gt.

Do you guys think a 8600gt 256mb will run games like Crysis, NFS Pro Street, FEAR, or Test Drive Unlimited smoothly on 1024x768? Or should I go for 512mb? Is there really a big difference?

My processor is intel core 2 duo 1.6GHz and I've got 1gb ram.

Thanks, Help Appreciated!

Answer 1

The 8600GT is a very decent video card, and will run games such as Crysis, NFS Pro Street, FEAR, or Test Drive Unlimited at 1024 x 768. Go with a 256MB card, the additional MBs on a 512MB card don't help you unless you play at much higher resolutions (at which point the 8600GT is too slow anyway).

NOTE: Beware of slower DDR2 versions of the 8600 GT! The GDDR3 versions are the recommended cards, while DDR2 equipped 8600 GTs will be notably slower. The cheapest GDDR3 versions of the card should find start at $80 online after mail-in rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1305520548+106791921+1067928607+1068409614&name=GDDR3

Here is a comparison chart of different video cards:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=719&model2=855&chart=276

The 8600GT will play Crysis at Medium settings just fine:
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6182806/p-5.html

Answer 2

Hi,to all my processor is a 2.8ghz and i ghave also got 1 gig ram and i have orderd a new card coz i am currently using a Geforce 7500le and that also sucks but i have orderd a geforce 8500gt and i am sure it will play games well as it has a 2560 x 1600 vidio output so it will take on games that run at 1024x watever u said just be careful that ur power supply can handle the card and that u have enough ram for ur games peace out,good luck

Answer 3

Poor Jay will be terribly disappointed when he gets that card. The 8600GT may run those games at LOW settings, but nothing better. You need to step up to the 8800GT if you want good graphics on those games.

Answer 4

That video card will probably be bottlenecked by your cpu and ram, I would try to do some more homework before stepping up to that card.