Cheapest PCI-E 'upgrade' from an X800XT-PE?

[peetee]

8600GT doesnt offer anything different from the x1950pro, OP doesnt require dx10 etc, and overclocking just adds some hassle

 

[Cyber-Mav]

8600GT doesnt offer anything different from the x1950pro, OP doesnt require dx10 etc, and overclocking just adds some hassle

then get the cheapest of the 2. considering both cards can be had for £65 and if games is not what he is mainly after then id go with the 8600gt for the reasons above. 8600gt sucks up 45w of power, x1950pro sucks up 85w of power and runs hotter too.

 

[J.D]

if he is not playing games, then its best to get the card which produces the least heat, consumes the least power, has the most features and is cheapo.

8600gt fits that budget. also has purevideo hd which helps out with video decoding. dx10 support is there (for what its worth).

8600gt is quicker than a x800xt, the 7600gt had 12 pipelines, the 8600gt has 16 pipes, with total of 32 stream processors. its performance is above that of the 7900gs, mate has a 8600gt and im absolutly shocked by its performance (overclocked to 650 on the core ), it rivals that of my x1900xt in places. an astounding card for the money really.

Aye true with the heat, power draw and HDTV. DX10 LMAO no comment .

Yeah the X800 was a bit stronger than the 7600 but this 8600 sounds great from the specifications you've just said. Rivaling our X1900XT's though Wow.

I thought the X1950pro beat the 8600GT though?. So how is it pulling up alongside a X1900XT?. If you are meaning overclocked then fair enough but for about the same price he can get a card that does that without the need for overclocking. The X1950pro. Also is the X1950 just not as good as doing HDTV decoding as the 8600GT?.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

Aye true with the heat, power draw and HDTV. DX10 LMAO no comment .

Yeah the X800 was a bit stronger than the 7600 but this 8600 sounds great from the specifications you've just said. Rivaling our X1900XT's though Wow.

I thought the X1950pro beat the 8600GT though?. So how is it pulling up alongside a X1900XT?. If you are meaning overclocked then fair enough but for about the same price he can get a card that does that without the need for overclocking. The X1950pro. Also is the X1950 just not as good as doing HDTV decoding as the 8600GT?.

x1950pro does beat the 8600gt, only the 8600gts competes with the x1950pro and even then in some cases the added memory bandwidth of the x1950pro makes it pull ahead especially in high resolutions.

in test drive unlimited, i can run the game on my x1900xt (clocked at 675/792) at 1152x864 with 2xAA and hdr enabled, and get decent fps majority of the time with in game details set to high (only 3 settings in game anyway, high, medium and low).
mates 8600gt which is clocked to 650 on the core and i forget the ram overclock but i think he got it to 1600mhz, manages to play the game at the same settings as me and similar framerates.
however in older games like half life 2 etc i can get higher resolutions out with decent fps since x1900xt got more memory bandwidth than the 8600gt.
just that in newer games im having to run at lower resolutions since the card is gpu limited and not memory bandwidth limited and brings the x1900xt down to 8600gt levels.
at the end of the day 8600gt and x1900xt are both 16 pipe cards so the fill rate is similar if clocked the same. 8600 has 32 proper streme processors, the x1900xt has 48 shader processors which are limited to being able to do only shader calculations, full on streme processors can be programed to do anything.

either way if your a casual gamer the 8600gt is an astounding card, i wish they pulled it out on agp, id grab it in an instant to replace my 7600gs wth for running my lcd tv pc at 1360x768.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

forgot to add, if you were a 100% gamer, id say get the x1950pro since its proper cheapo now at the same price as the 8600gt.
but since you need htpc capabilities as well and you don't game that often then you could settle with the 8600gt.
think someone mentioned that the 8600gt can run bioshock at highish settings in dx10 mode and get 40fps average. not bad at all that.

 

[J.D]

Aye I agree. For a gamer the X1950 but for just Pro Evolution soccer and HDTV the 8600 is the better option.

Great post Mav. A lot of the time I read your X2900 slating and seen the dark side of you but nah yer alright man .

 

[ACESHIGH]

Nah. i would say get the X1950pro.

The GeForce 8500 GT, 8600 GT/S appear to have very poor HD video playback.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q3/radeon-hd-2400-2600/index.x?pg=11

Also, even on the 8600 GTS, Nvidia's noise reduction filter isn't anywhere near ready for prime-time. This routine may produce a solid score in HQV, but it introduces visible color banding during HD movie playback. AMD's algorithms quite clearly perform better.

 

[Ste]

Hi

The only reason for the upgrade is because the new board won't take an AGP card. Also, I don't want to go from a 2.4 P4C to a 2.4 quad core and find I've downgraded the graphics in the process

Thanks for all the advice, will almost certainly be going for the unbranded x1950 at 70quid

 

[Cyber-Mav]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047&p=7

Performance is important, and UVD performance is certainly impressive. But we still have to favor the 8600 for its superior image quality.

got to read all reviews not just hand picked ones.

 

[Ste]

I've read that and now I'm confused

The X1950 will be better in games, but an 8600GT/GTS will have far better HD video performance? Am I right?

 

[peetee]

I've read that and now I'm confused

The X1950 will be better in games, but an 8600GT/GTS will have far better HD video performance? Am I right?

Cant see why it would have better HD performance.. As its been said many times before, our graphics cards have been outputting HD in a higher FPS for years..
I was under the impression HD was more about processor aslong as you had a HD compatible card, even integrated 6150s are capable of this, and are often a choice graphics solution for people making little HD capable media centres

 

[Ste]

Because of the quality of the decoding/deinterlacing algorithms written by ATI/Nvidia I guess, rather than things like the DAC or resolution support.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

I've read that and now I'm confused

The X1950 will be better in games, but an 8600GT/GTS will have far better HD video performance? Am I right?

yes your right, 8600gt has purevideo HD so your cpu will not get battered when decoding high definition video.

the x1950pro will be faster in games, but you mentioned your not going to be plaing games other then pro evo soccer and my 7600gs does pro evo really well.

 

[peetee]

2.4 quad core and find I've downgraded the graphics in the process

Anandtech also states that it doesnt really matter which you have if you've got a decent CPU, as it will be more than capable of handling decoding if it is being offloaded onto it.
OP what do you even use your pc for btw?

8600 still win on image quality? doing work so havnt had much look about, if so then it would have to be that hands down, if its a noticable difference atleast..

 

[Jive-Zombie]

I keep thinking of upgrading from my "X800 XT 256mb" to a "2600 Pro 512mb" to keep me going as i can't afford £400..

Anyone know if a 2600 Pro 512mb would work on an intel 925X mobo? It's to go with a pre-built pc i've had for 2 years.. can't say the name but i'll just say "Gen 4"..

 

[Ste]

I play around with video and watch a lot of HD stuff... Once you get into running complex deinterlacing algorithms from the CPU you need a lot of grunt. My 3.0ghz P4C won't deinterlace SD DVD with my fave deinterlacing method, for example. I'd like to be able to do 1080i deinterlacing without having to resort to crap cpu friendly methods with poor IQ.

I will play some games, just on my 2nd monitor, which I use like a console (PS2 > USB pads), I sit 10ft from a 37" screen and can't tell if AA is on or not from that distance, so it doesn't really bother me.

Quad core is probably overkill but I figure if I can get a 2.4 quad core and clock it to 3-3.2ish it'll last me a few years (had my [email protected] for over 4years now and it's still not a bad CPU! Only cost 120quid new too, value for money that is)

Again, thanks for all the help

 

[Ste]

Cant see why it would have better HD performance

Sorry, by 'performance' I mean IQ etc. which is down to how good the drivers are really. Not too bothered how much the card aids the CPU.

 

[willhub]

then get the cheapest of the 2. considering both cards can be had for £65 and if games is not what he is mainly after then id go with the 8600gt for the reasons above. 8600gt sucks up 45w of power, x1950pro sucks up 85w of power and runs hotter too.

Uh, its not that hot to choose an 8600GT over it.., everyone seems to be obsessed with heat and power even though it's not that bad, the X1950Pro is the better of the 2 cards tbh..