7900gs or 8600gts

chump

Which would you go for?

I have a dell e520 and it can accept any single slot cards so ruled out are the fancy 8800's and double slight 7series and ati-equivalent cards...

I can get the 7900gs for roughly 40euro cheaper than the 8600gts but both are in the price range.

I've heard a lot of negativity about the 8600gts, particularly due to its 128bit memory limitation.

I also realise that dx10 is a bit away and games for the next year-3 will be both dx9 and dx10.

But still the temptation to buy the newer technology does exist, and also the hope that it's performance will improve with games/drivers.

I'll throw in that the x1950pro is also another viable alternative.

Suggestions please?

christophicus

At teh moment it looks like the 8600gts may not be able to handle DX10 games, so dont get it for DX10.

Personally I would go for the x1950pro.

TerrorFirmer

Most X1950Pros have very big coolers, so be careful which one you choose if you're getting one. The fan on the 7900gs is actually tiny, very neat little card.

I wouldn't go for an 8600gts, dx10 aside, its poor value for money at its price.

christophicus

teh saphire x1950 pro has a single slot cooler.

chump

HavoK wrote:

I wouldn't go for an 8600gts, dx10 aside, its poor value for money at its price.

The thing is it's going to cost almost the same as the x1950pro - does that mean it's still poor value and should still opt for the Pro above it?

TerrorFirmer

What cards are you comparing? Usually 8600GTS is a good 40-50 quid more expensive then the X1950Pro.

Comparing card to card, the X1950pro usually performs consistently better then the 8600GTS anyway, so right now it does not make sense to get a card solely based on Dx10 seeing as no games really support it, and those that do, might not even work well with the 8600GTS.

I would definitely get the X1950Pro.

Here's another decent single slot card for a mere 140 euro - good value for the price.

chump

I was planning on getting
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/8Vfn3iKIYXNBVR/1/articledetail.jsp?aid=9765&agid=394

but if I opt for a x1950pro from same location, cheapest that single slot is
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/8Vfn3iKIYXNBVR/1/articledetail.jsp?aid=7771&agid=716

so a 6euro different and the pro doesn't include the cable that changes molex to pcie-6pin, so i'd have to pick that up

altyho I see
http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=49NJ&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=11137,402370000

8T8

Well if you can get the 8600GTS as cheap as the X1950 Pro then you may as well go for it because it is usually not as cheap as an X1950 Pro.

Performance wise they are both about the same.

chump

thanks for the advice

i've decided to hold off until the next gen games come out and then pick the best sub €200 card available that will fit... hopefully something with more bang than the 8600gts will be avail.