Originally posted by: Johnbear007
Halo/far cry/ut2k4 run great on my 8500
Of course you have to realize that everyone's definition of "great" differs. While UT2k4 easily runs at 1280x1024 with Max Detail settings on my 8500, the first 2 games are a different story.
It is impossible to play either game at above 1024x768 Max settings. Even at medium settings they are at 35fps and below which are not regarded as great frame rates for a FPS. Now if you consider that many use AA/AF, the 8500 shouldn't even be considered a videocard at this point.
Trust me, if you got a faster videocard, you would never be able to go back. When I first got 8500, I could play MOHAA at 1600x1200 max everything with AF enabled. Then with newer games I found that I had to disable AF, then i had to lower max detail to medium and then resolutions started to drop and now any new game like NFS:U, Halo, Far Cry struggles at 1024x768 medium detail! Now i've finally realized that I have to get a videocard as I cannot suffer any more graphical sacrifices, or I might as well start playing console games at 640x480. You have to draw the line somewhere. Since 8500, there have been Geforce 4, 5, and now 6 = that's 3 full generations on the Nvidia's side (8500 was competing with geforce 3). On Ati's front, there was 9700Pro, 9800xt and now x800 series (arguyable another 3 full generations or 2.5 if you wish). So since Geforce 4 4600 was 30% faster than 8500, and 9700Pro was often 100% faster with AA/AF enabled than geforce 4 series and 9800xt was 30% faster than 9700Pro and now x800xt pe is at least 100% faster than 9800xt, your videocard is roughly 260% slower than the fastest card out right now.
To put it bluntly, where as in a new game one card will get 75 frames and 8500 will be struggling getting 25-30 at the same settings. But that's not what usually happens. In reality once the card becomes too slow, it will usually give you 5-8fps while the new generation will give you 50-70 at equivalent quality levels.