[Mars]

...before I upgrade my computer, or should I just get a 7600 card now and replace my poor Radeon X1300 ASAP.

 I'm planning on upgrading my AMD Athlon 3200+ to a 4400+ or some other higher end processor at the same time.

Also is the time coming where 1 GB or ram just isn't enough for higher end games? Or can I concentrate on my graphics card and processor.

[Prophet]

If you start waiting for a better graphics card, then you will be waiting for a very long long long long long long long long long long long long long long time. Because there will always be better card "coming out soon". Besides, those things are very effortless to chance so you can buy the hyped up ultra GTI XX(i) deluxe card later.

For some time now there have been games that have greatly benefited from 2 gig memory. And in my experience, you can't never have too much of it. It's not like its particularly costly.

[Nuke]

yea right, i just spent $300 on 4 gb.

[IceFire]

What about a 8600GTS or GT?  A wee bit faster than the 7600GT but with better IQ and video acceleration.  Depends on what features interest you.

[Polpolion]

How is the 8600GTS only a little faster than the 7600GT? It has 1000 more numbers, plus it has an "S" on the end!!

[IceFire]

Its just number envy.

[Scuddie]

The 8500s under perform even that of a 6600GT.  The 8600s are not that much better.  I wouldn't wait for the 9 series, I would wait for the 8900gs to arrive.  It can't be too long, can it?

[IceFire]

8500 is meant to be a replacement for the 7300 so thats not really surprising that is under a 6600GT.  The 8600GT and 8600GTS are what I was talking about.  There will be a 8300 or an 8400 but those are for OEM's only and probably are meant to be the cheapest part around for eMachines and folks like that.

[CP5670]

The 9 series is a long ways off. It's unlikely to arrive until next year, as Nvidia can afford to increase the length of this card generation with AMD having screwed up. The 8800 refresh is supposed to come sometime in the Fall.

The 8600 cards are lousy. They have gotten cheaper since they were released, but so have many of the competing previous gen cards, so they aren't any better buys than they used to be. AMD's 2600 line is reportedly underwhelming too.

[IceFire]

I'd say if the 8600's drop to within $20-40 of the average 7600GT its worth it to go up for the video acceleration and better image quality than the 7000 series which had some issues.  The DX10 stuff is still somewhat sketchy...I'll be willing to bet that one or two more generations of cards will be necessary before we have solid DX10 performance (with all of the eye candy turned on) from a mid range card.

[Dark RevenantX]

yea right, i just spent $300 on 4 gb.

I can get that much for half the price...

[Herra Tohtori]

yea right, i just spent $300 on 4 gb.

I can get that much for half the price...

Yea well, it depends on what kind of memory you are buying. Good costs generally more.

Paradoxally, though, "old" DDR memory costs more per GB than newer DDR2 memory. Go figure...

[EliteT3]

forget those upgrades..i got a
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked / 640MB GDDR3 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card( i got 2 for sli)
EVGA nForce 680i SLI NVIDIA Socket 775 ATX Motherboard/ PCI Express / SLI / Dual Gigabit LAN / S/PDIF / Serial ATA /
US Modular Cold Fusion 4096MB Dual Channel PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory and 2048MB each, i got 2
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66GHz / 8MB Cache / 1066MHz FSB / Kentsfield / Quad-Core / Socket 775 / Processor with Fan
and a lot more to tell

[Bob-san]

Why didn't you get two 8800GTX's with that high-end processor?

OK now... there is always another generation to come! the Geforce 8500GT is much better then the Radeon HD 2400, from the benchmarks I've seen. Still, I'm looking at getting a reference sample to actually test it out with.

[Topgun]

Wait till you have LOTS AND LOTS of money, then buy 2 of the best cards available and put them in SLI. Thats what I am going to do.

[Scuddie]

SLI sucks donkey dick and you know it.  Are you trying to feed him bad advice just for kicks?

[EliteT3]

sli gives you a clearer resolution, good for hdtv which i use, plus pro shading and pixels, and more for programs like 3ds max and maya 3d..so !! to you, hehe, sli is wicked, ati cant do all dat.

[neoterran]

any 8th gen geforce card rocks. my macbook pro has a 8600 and a **** 128 MB Framebuffer but it still rocks compared to my 7800GS 256 in ol' bessie..

but then, i don't really play any hardcore games on this pc, it's really only used for development. Freespace2 doesn't count as a hardcore game, and neither does other fun 3d games like Frets on Fire

[S-99]

Never get an nvidia card that ends in gts and gtx, those are always budget cards or just castrated in a way you never imagined. **** dx10, it's only for vista, so only vista will benefit, and also the x360, but you get what i mean, plus there's not much difference between dx9 and dx10 anyway. Plus i've heard that the geforce 8 series didn't have much to offer which it really doesn't. OOOO geforce 8's got dx10 and better movie acceleration wowie, not worth the money for your small increase in speed in movies and worthless dx10 you'll never notice and will take forever to get implemented into games. Just get a ****ing geforce 7600gt or up, nothing lower, good for the money, and damn satisfying, plus the 7600gt and higher models in the geforce 7 series have blu-ray and hd-dvd acceleration (which is a ****ing good thing to have along with multiple cored processor...if anything, it's hi-def movies that will run your computer into the ground). So in reality, the geforce 7's are only missing dx10 which you can take a piss on really.

Get a geforce 8 only if you are going to use dx10 ****ing religiously which won't happen since you wouldn't be able to.
I have a 7600gt, do not get the gts, like i said about the gts models, they are pure crippled **** that i don't even know why they are in stores for budget consumer graphics because they can't play games at playable framerates. And it's also a good rule of thumb not to buy anything from nvidia called gtx either. Gtx is like the crippled version of the high end cards they offer.

[CP5670]

I'd say if the 8600's drop to within $20-40 of the average 7600GT its worth it to go up for the video acceleration and better image quality than the 7000 series which had some issues.  The DX10 stuff is still somewhat sketchy...I'll be willing to bet that one or two more generations of cards will be necessary before we have solid DX10 performance (with all of the eye candy turned on) from a mid range card.

They would need to drop by a fair bit to be worth looking at. The way the current pricing is around here, you can get a 7600GT for $80. An 8600GT and a 256MB X1950 Pro both cost about $130 and I can't see any reason to choose the 8600 given how much faster the latter is. The 8600GTS is now $160, but the X1950XT has fallen to the same level and completely blows it away, even more so than the Pro and GT.

Also, the one DX10 benchmark we have available (the Call of Juarez one) has even 8800GTXs struggling, so I wouldn't expect much out of the lower end cards.

Never get an nvidia card that ends in gts and gtx, those are always budget cards or just castrated in a way you never imagined. **** dx10, it's only for vista, so only vista will benefit, and also the x360, but you get what i mean, plus there's not much difference between dx9 and dx10 anyway. Plus i've heard that the geforce 8 series didn't have much to offer which it really doesn't. OOOO geforce 8's got dx10 and better movie acceleration wowie, not worth the money for your small increase in speed in movies and worthless dx10 you'll never notice and will take forever to get implemented into games. Just get a ****ing geforce 7600gt or up, nothing lower, good for the money, and damn satisfying, plus the 7600gt and higher models in the geforce 7 series have blu-ray and hd-dvd acceleration (which is a ****ing good thing to have along with multiple cored processor...if anything, it's hi-def movies that will run your computer into the ground). So in reality, the geforce 7's are only missing dx10 which you can take a piss on really.

Get a geforce 8 only if you are going to use dx10 ****ing religiously which won't happen since you wouldn't be able to.
I have a 7600gt, do not get the gts, like i said about the gts models, they are pure crippled **** that i don't even know why they are in stores for budget consumer graphics because they can't play games at playable framerates. And it's also a good rule of thumb not to buy anything from nvidia called gtx either. Gtx is like the crippled version of the high end cards they offer.

Wow, I haven't seen so much ignorance in a single post in quite a while.

1:GT<GTS<GTX in the Nvidia naming scheme in general. The GTX moniker has been used for their top end model for the last two generations.
2: The main selling point of the 8800 cards has nothing to do with DX10. It's their superior DX9 performance in current games. The 8600s are pretty worthless right now, but that certainly doesn't apply to the entire 8 series.
3: The video acceleration on any of these cards is useless for most people, since it only works with their own software and that costs money. They apparently do this to cover royalty fees on the video formats. Besides, modern CPUs have no problem running HD movies anyway, unless you're doing other things at the same time.