Too lazy to copypasta everything but here's the gist of it http://dailytech.com/NVIDIA+GeForce+8600Series+Details+Unveiled/article6477.htm GTS pictars: http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/4149_large_GeForce8600GTS.jpg GT pictars: http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/4150_large_GeForce8600GT.jpg
For a highend DX10 card, 95% of the 8800GTX, for RM1100, I think it's really cheap. It's so powerful it should last you at least 2 generations.
I would still prefer to go for a mid-range card. Well, not like my system can actually make full use of a 8800 GTS.
If you don't have a fast system, you are more unlikely not to buy 8800GTS. Trust me, 8800 is more than just the speed. Excellent AF quality, higher than 4xAA.
Well, for me, it's economics. New GPUs come up so fast that it makes investing in expensive cards.. well, a REALLY, really expensive hobby.
The really expensive cards are 8800GTX. Double the price, but only 5% increase in performance. While the money you pay for 8600 and 8800GTS is quite linear in terms of price and performance. It's not like I'm playing a lot of games. But if I do, I would definitely buy one.
But to be honest, pricing it in the USD250/= region for what is basically a clocked up 8600 core isn't what would one consider worth the money spent when for a few extra bucks, one could posibbly get an 8900GS coming soon which while is still a cut down G80 core, is still a better choice with Unified Shaders and all.
TBH, I don't know how are they going to market this 8600GTS. It's faster than 7950GT, while 8800GTS 320MB isn't that much faster in some situation. And the price difference between the two is like RM200. So 8600GTS is probably going to cost RM800-900 retail. The only advantage 8600GTS has over 7950GT is DX10 support, which is useless when most of us are still using XP.
Faster in what sense we must ask ourselves. Is it in terms of clock speeds? FPS? or Benchmark numbers?. DX10.1 support is one issue that will come into perspective in a year or two which is undeniable for gamers. The other is that faster is not necessary better. NVIDIA did not overhaul the archetecture for G80 compared to G70 for no reason. Unified Shaders will become the way to go due to the fact games from now on will be more intensive in terms of mathematical and physics processing. ATi/AMD had already led the way by introducing R520 which is by far the only GPU which is able to crunch numbers for F@H. Although that seems irrelevant now, physics modelling will become more and more required as gamers will demand more realism then ever in terms of effects and all. In fact it reminds me of the DX8/DX9 argument back then. My only hope for GPU's now is that after they transition to 65nm die sizes, they would be following the current trend of lower consumption of energy as we all can see, less does mean more. So at the current stage, GPU development is being an anti-thesis of the industry's direction
GTS 320MB is the card to get. value for monehhhhh.. 8800gts 320mb FTW! nv has never released such good value/performance high-end cards for years. in fact...can't recall any of such card.
8800GTS 320MB is indeed the most value for money card you can buy today. Unless you are playing 1920x1200 4xAA, it should be as fast as a normal 8800GTS 640MB in most scenarios and pay 75% or lower. The most interesting feature to me is improved AF and inclusive of true 8xMSAA without needing SLI. The others? I will wait till DX10 is shown on my screen.
Since this thread is all about 8600, let me ask something here, Does it come with the PPU? I want a Physics built in there! If it is so, I gonna buy it! The DDR2 version costs RM390 and maybe it's a good buy. And how does an 8600GT compared to, a 7900? Or a 7600?
How about the PPU? I know the PPU exist in the 8800, where the Ghost Recon game pasted ALL over the box, but how about the 8600? Does these 8600 have the PPU as well?
the 8500 series looks attractive but looking at the bandwidth, even my 6800 Ultra still beat it. 8600GT or whatever is about RM 700 - 1000 range, so it's off-limits. hrmmm....
All 8xxx series GPUs use unified shader technology, with stream processors instead of dedicated vertex or pixel shaders. These stream processor also support physics processing, when games actually support them on the GPU.
