Hey guys, one of the online retailers I shop at normally has a great deal on a budget video card. Keep in mind I don't game a whole lot, what with my job and all. But do like some. Anyway...

I found an nvidia geforce 8600 gt

But before you guys say how horrible it is....

According to the specs it is factory overclocked with these specs

800 mhz core clock
512 mb ddr3 vram
1600 mhz ram speed

Price=124.99, with 30 dollar mail in rebate. What do you guys think? Would this come close to like say a 3850?

Umm no it won't even come a bit close to the 3850.
Its not about the clock, its about what the card has, shaders, ROP, TMU. The 3850 has way more of those.

Yeah, I agree it's nowhere near the HD3850. Matter of fact the 3850 offers about twice the performance of the 8600GTS even.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] i=3151&p=8

But that said, the 8600GT is a nice casual gaming card. Your price isn't that good though. The faster 8600GTS has been under $100 AR and the HD2600XT (>= 8600GT IMO) has been as low as $55.

BTW, here is an 8600GT for $70 shipped AR.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130085

OC'ed MSI for $86 shipped AR.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127306

IceQ 2600XT Turbo 512MB for $89 AR would get my nod over the MSI above:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161174

Let me see, here is the actual card I think.....


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814134036


For 125, especially with the rebate, sounds like a good card for the money, I would think it would be somewhere between a GTS and a 3850 from the way it sounds right? Just trying to get a feel for what everyone thinks. For the price, it looks like it would do for a while to run an lcd, and do some casual gaming. Like I said, it does give a 30 dollar rebate, which would go to 94.99, I know there are cheaper 256 versions, but that has the 512, would the 512 be worth it do you think? Or do you think that it couldn't handle a high enough resolution to even worry about?

no, 512 on the low-end cards do not help much. if you are really strapped on cash get a dell bro

seriously though 512 is not worth for that card, either go down for like a :

"BTW, here is an 8600GT for $70 shipped AR.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130085

OC'ed MSI for $86 shipped AR.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127306

IceQ 2600XT Turbo 512MB for $89 AR would get my nod over the MSI above:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161174
" -from pauldh

or, go up save like 4 more and get a hd 3850....But I would not make the mistake of deluding oneself that the 512 8600gt is worht it at that price anyways...but hey its your money, do with it as you please...

or hd2900gt/pro if newegg still has them. ~ $130-140

A dell? Hardly. Junk you mean. Not really, dells are nice, but not for me. I've worked on them, and hate the way they set things up. Kind of hate the way the big box brands set up their systems actually, some are a little cheesy, and far to complicated to work on what should be a simple task, too much garbage and plastic in the way. I prefer to build all my systems. Just lacking on video. Right now, just with working regular and a family and things, don't think I would need a whole whole lot. Though I have been playing madden more lately...lol.

But no, my system is a home built, AMD 5200 x2, 2 gb ddr2, dvd burner, 320 gb hd, media reader, 550 watt psu, etc. Just the video card was left over from another machine, got a good deal on it for like 15 bucks. 7300 LE. Not bad for what it is....but want better as well. What stunk was before this, had an older system, IDE drives the works....so yeah, been upgrading as I go. I think I may look into the 3850 though....by the way, 3650 looks like a good deal, but don't know anything about them, anyone have any info, or are any reviews out yet?

Nevermind about the 3650, realized it uses ddr2 memory, so it can't be anything to write home about.

A higher clocked 256MB GTS would be better. You aren't going to push high res with fsaa where the 512MB would shine. There's a chance that 8600GT would beat the 256MB GTS in Crysis and COD4 at some settings as both seem to do better with 512MB, but I doubt it and if so would not be at playable settings.

Also, without fsaa the iceQ 512MB 2600XT turbo would be a little better. And as someone said, the 2900 pro 512MB or HD3850 much better. With either of those cards you are stepping up to a whole new level compared to the 8600GT, GTS, and 2600XT.

would the new ATI 3650 be a better option than nvidia 8600GT/GTS ?

thanks

The HD 3650 is the same as the 2600, sometimes even a little slower. Probably better than the GT but not as good as the GTS.

Yup. Get it, it seems you obviously wnat to be close to the $100 range + or - $30 so I say go for it.

for casual gaming the 512m 8600gt runs cod4 quite well in my wife's PC up to 1024x768 for online play

Last thing here then, since I'm talking around 130 bucks, I've noticed the ATI 2900 gt series is right around that price range, and has the 256 bit interface, any opinions?