tarna Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Looking at buying one of these cards for my daughter's computer for fairly cheap. All the info I find on them are glowing reviews from last year. It is a 'dual' video card that has two cards stacked together to give SLI using a single PCI-e slot. 1 Gb of total GDDR3 RAM. Asus. Thoughts? Ruminations... When a man has no Future, the Present passes too quickly to be assimilated and only the static Past has value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionavar Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 I have the notebook version fwiiw. It still remains the card to get for DR notebooks! The universe is change; your life is what our thoughts make it - Marcus Aurelius (161) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bokishi Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Ehhh it's alright... It's not really 1GB it's 512. You can't double the memory with SLI. But if you're getting it for uber-cheap then go for it. Current 3DMark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lokey Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Friend bought one a while back. Unless the design has changed, they're loud. If a really good bargain, think about redoing the fans and heatsink. Just what I needed, another forum to keep up with. Neversummer PW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkreku Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 The ATI X1950XTX 512 MB GDDR4 (which I use myself) has the same or better performance on a single card. No need for SLI compliant games! Don't know if it's possible to find it anymore though.. Swedes, go to: Spel2, for the latest game reviews in swedish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@\NightandtheShape/@ Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 The GX2 is an awesome card. I have one, I've had no problems with it, flip it from SLI to single core at will... It's a real nice GFX card, it's basically just an SLI setup on one card. Perf is good, owts better than ATI. "I'm a programmer at a games company... REET GOOD!" - Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samm Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 yeah, better ati as a whole brand of gfx cards... anyway, it's not the newest thing, but if you get it cheap and don't worry about the power consumption of a sli-setup, and have a compatible mainboard: go get it Citizen of a country with a racist, hypocritical majority Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkreku Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 The GX2 is an awesome card. I have one, I've had no problems with it, flip it from SLI to single core at will... It's a real nice GFX card, it's basically just an SLI setup on one card. Perf is good, owts better than ATI. I'm not sure what "owts" means, but just to illustrate my point: I admit that these are chosen results (the 7950 probably won the rest of the tests, I didn't check them all) but since the 7950 is an SLI card, performance varies wildly. And on one core it's annihilated by the 1950. Still, both are good cards and if you can get the GX2 cheap, don't hesitate. Swedes, go to: Spel2, for the latest game reviews in swedish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarna Posted September 26, 2007 Author Share Posted September 26, 2007 Was just nosing around and found that I can get an 8600 for the same price ( or cheaper ). My kid won't be needing the high end SLI compatible stuff. I was just looking at 'bullet-proofing' her system since she doesn't live in the same city that I do. Thoughts? Ruminations... When a man has no Future, the Present passes too quickly to be assimilated and only the static Past has value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkreku Posted September 26, 2007 Share Posted September 26, 2007 The 8600 is a mid-range card and isn't really comparable with either the X1950 or the 7950. But if you're not looking for high-end performance it'll do. If it's the same price as the 7950, I'd suggest the 7950. The only difference (except performance and some SLI problems that might occur) is that the 8600 supports DirectX10. Games will have DirectX9 support for a long time to come though so no hurry getting on that train. Swedes, go to: Spel2, for the latest game reviews in swedish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@\NightandtheShape/@ Posted September 26, 2007 Share Posted September 26, 2007 The GX2 is an awesome card. I have one, I've had no problems with it, flip it from SLI to single core at will... It's a real nice GFX card, it's basically just an SLI setup on one card. Perf is good, owts better than ATI. I'm not sure what "owts" means, but just to illustrate my point: I admit that these are chosen results (the 7950 probably won the rest of the tests, I didn't check them all) but since the 7950 is an SLI card, performance varies wildly. And on one core it's annihilated by the 1950. Still, both are good cards and if you can get the GX2 cheap, don't hesitate. You can throw selective perf data at me all day long, I really won't give a ****. Owt = Anything. The reason i bash ATi so damn hard is actually down to the fact I haven't met or even known anyone who's had a good experience with a ATi cards, and considering most of my friends are tech heads its clearly not down to them being plain n00bs. Nvidia = Performance and Compatibility. ATi = Miniscule performance increase, and about as compatible as me with journalists, unless you're "Yahtzee", and then you're cool because you just tell it how it is, opposed to speaking codswallop like some bizzare self indulgent turnip. Tarna, get the 8600, especially if you're running Vista or planning on running Vista, else grab a 7950GX2. "I'm a programmer at a games company... REET GOOD!" - Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hell Kitty Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Was just nosing around and found that I can get an 8600 for the same price ( or cheaper ). My kid won't be needing the high end SLI compatible stuff. I was just looking at 'bullet-proofing' her system since she doesn't live in the same city that I do. Thoughts? I had a 7950 GX2 (the XFX XXX) and it was great, but sadly it died not long ago. I now have an 8600 and while it might now be as powerful as the old card, I've kinda moved on to the 360 as a gaming platform, with the PC for older or less intensive games. Mind you the 8600 performs better than I expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@\NightandtheShape/@ Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 It's a real mixed bag, 8 series cards can occasionally perform better in an XP enviroment, and they tend to loose more perf in a Vista enviroment, its mostly a driver issues at the moment, that and a bundle of other stuff... "I'm a programmer at a games company... REET GOOD!" - Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samm Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 (edited) The reason i bash ATi so damn hard is actually down to the fact I haven't met or even known anyone who's had a good experience with a ATi cards, and considering most of my friends are tech heads its clearly not down to them being plain n00bs. Well then, pleased to meet you. I replaced my old GF 6800 GT with a x1950pro until I've saved enough money for a new PC. Did not regret it for one second, as it didn't cause any problems. Compared to the crappy update process of the nVidia-driver, where I always had to delete some registry entries and modifying some others before the new driver would let me install it... Well, the old card itself was very good, so were the GF 4400 and the GF 2 MX before it, but so is my "new" ATI. Plus, it has noticably increased image quality (and speed of course). 8600 wasn't recommended too enthusiastically (esp. if compared to its predecessors 6600 and 7600) by reviewers, as it is much slower than the higher end cards of its generation, and slower than the "performance" cards from the previous generations. The same is true for ATI's current mid-range cards. I'd currently not invest in those... Edited September 27, 2007 by samm Citizen of a country with a racist, hypocritical majority Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@\NightandtheShape/@ Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Well then, pleased to meet you. I replaced my old GF 6800 GT with a x1950pro until I've saved enough money for a new PC. Did not regret it for one second, as it didn't cause any problems. Compared to the crappy update process of the nVidia-driver, where I always had to delete some registry entries and modifying some others before the new driver would let me install it... Well, the old card itself was very good, so were the GF 4400 and the GF 2 MX before it, but so is my "new" ATI. Plus, it has noticably increased image quality (and speed of course). Things do change, and modern ATI cards and software support certainly seems better than it did a few years back. Seems like you had some problems with your system, as I have never had that problem with NVidia cards, and until I have problems I wouldn't consider changing. 8600 wasn't recommended too enthusiastically (esp. if compared to its predecessors 6600 and 7600) by reviewers, as it is much slower than the higher end cards of its generation, and slower than the "performance" cards from the previous generations. The same is true for ATI's current mid-range cards. I'd currently not invest in those... Tarna previously stated that it was for his "daughter's computer", and that "My kid won't be needing the high end SLI compatible stuff. I was just looking at 'bullet-proofing' her system since she doesn't live in the same city that I do." Now if you ask me, it sure doesn't sound like Tarna is trying to build anything more than a stable and capible system. The Geforce 8600 is probably the best option, not because of its performance but because it will recieve more support in the future for Vista based systems, if the machine is to be an XP based system the geforce 8600 is still a decent card, that is fairly cheap. "I'm a programmer at a games company... REET GOOD!" - Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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