Originally posted by: Gstanfor
The 7600GT was more than a replacement for your 6800GT and these new cards handily outperform that.
The customer who was given good advice will come back and will recommend friends to your dealership because they know you are trustworthy. The customer who you forced into one of your products and who hates every day of it will not only not come back but will trash your product AND YOU.
Originally posted by: dreddfunk
I'm certainly a little disappointed. I think a key question will be DX10 performance once we can measure that.
Truthfully, I can't keep a little nagging feeling from cropping up that nVidia hasn't shown us their real DX10 midrange plan here. There is just too much of a performance gap between it and the 8800 320. I get the feeling that a 64 shader, 256-bit card is in the works some place, if it isn't already ready to be released to manufacturing.
The overly cynical side of me wonders if we're not seeing nVidia's original, pre-R600-delay, version of the GTS. If I recall correctly, I saw several articles indicating that the GTS was going to have 64 shaders at the very least.
Originally posted by: happy medium
Says here the 8600gts is 52% faster in FEAR and 29% faster in Far Cry then the 7600gt.
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=636&p=3
Edit: 83% faster in Prey and 28% faster in Quake 4 also.
Originally posted by: bigsnyder
About HardOCP's article,
Again, look at the games they used. I think HardOCP has a point. The newer the game, the
chances it will favor the newer chips such as the 8600s. The oblivion benchmarks from this
site and HardOCP demonstrate this. My opinion of this card is changing, but the 8800 320MB
is IMO a better buy considering how small the current price gap is. This will change over time,
but something to consider.
C Snyder
While the 8600 GT improves on the performance of its spiritual predecessor the 7600 GT, we don't see significant performance improvement above hardware currently available at the target prices for the new hardware. In NVIDIA's favor, our newest and most shader intensive tests (Oblivion and Rainbow Six: Vegas) paint the 8600 hardware in a more favorable light than older tests that rely less on shader programs and more on texture, z, and color fill rates.
We are planning on looking further into this issue and will be publishing a second article on 8600 GTS/GT performance in the near future using games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Supreme Commander, and Company of Heroes. Hopefully these tests will help confirm our conclusion that near future titles that place a heavier emphasis on shader performance will benefit more from G84 based hardware than previous models.
The GeForce 8600 GTS series GPU destroys ATI's current X1950 series for right around $220.
The GeForce 8600 GTS is a traditional hard launch, with retail availability actually before this evaluation was even published. However, the GeForce 8600 GT and the GeForce 8500 GT are not so lucky. They are not going to be available in retail today. You may be able to find a few GeForce 8600 GT cards if you are lucky, but not the GeForce 8500 GT. NVIDIA has decided to change the definition of a hard launch for them.
Originally posted by: happy medium
The price of the 8600gts needs to drop at least 40 bucks.
You can get a 8800gts 320 mb for 239.00$ now.
http://www.buy.com/prod/PNY_XLR8_GeForc..._Video_Card/q/loc/61905/204134658.html
Originally posted by: Wreckage
Originally posted by: happy medium
The price of the 8600gts needs to drop at least 40 bucks.
You can get a 8800gts 320 mb for 239.00$ now.
http://www.buy.com/prod/PNY_XLR8_GeForc..._Video_Card/q/loc/61905/204134658.html
The 8600 is $60 less without a rebate.
Originally posted by: nemesismk2
I expected more from the 8600 GTS because it costs from £140 to £160. In comparison you can get a x1950 Pro for £95 to £134 or a Geforce 7900 GS for £110 to £150.
Hope the price of the 8600 GTS falls quickly in the UK because it's performance just isn't good enough!
Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
Originally posted by: dreddfunk
I'm certainly a little disappointed. I think a key question will be DX10 performance once we can measure that.
Truthfully, I can't keep a little nagging feeling from cropping up that nVidia hasn't shown us their real DX10 midrange plan here. There is just too much of a performance gap between it and the 8800 320. I get the feeling that a 64 shader, 256-bit card is in the works some place, if it isn't already ready to be released to manufacturing.
The overly cynical side of me wonders if we're not seeing nVidia's original, pre-R600-delay, version of the GTS. If I recall correctly, I saw several articles indicating that the GTS was going to have 64 shaders at the very least.
DX10 on 8600GTS is going to be subpar if history is of any indication.
Originally posted by: yacoub
Originally posted by: happy medium
Says here the 8600gts is 52% faster in FEAR and 29% faster in Far Cry then the 7600gt.
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=636&p=3
Edit: 83% faster in Prey and 28% faster in Quake 4 also.
Any reason their review leaves out the 7900GT or 7950GT, or is that just "convenient"?
The question that remains for everyone in the mid-range right now that owns a 7900GS, 7900GT, 7950GT, or equivalent ATi cards is why would they want to spend $250 to buy a card that performs less well in many games, about the same in a few games, and slightly better in one or two games, when they could spend $20-30 more to get an 8800GTS that unquestionably outperforms any of those last-gen cards?
It's a question for which NVidia - even the marketing dept - has no answer, because the 8600GTS is too handicapped. They cut out too many stream processors and too much of the bus bandwidth. 64sp and 256-bit bus would have made it a great card for $225-250.
When $30 buys you three times the stream processors and three times the bus bandwidth, you'd be crazy not to get the 8800GTS (or perhaps wait to see what ATi offers).
NVidia just relinquished their initiative in the mid-range, giving ATi a chance to win that market segment IF they can come out with a mid-range card at the 8600GTS's price range that outperforms it, which honestly shouldn't be hard at all given how weak the 8600GTS's specs are. I say it will be a clear sign as to whether ATi has any competency left at all.