Decisions Decisions

[Purplehaze515]

I have a EVGA 7900 GS 256mb and im looking at a EVGA 8600GT 512mb it almost seems too good to be true that the 8600 is only $140. So whats the big differnce between the two cards?

[jimcooper1]

I have a EVGA 7900 GS 256mb and im looking at a EVGA 8600GT 512mb it almost seems too good to be true that the 8600 is only $140. So whats the big differnce between the two cards?

Well apart from DX10 support the 7900GS is actually the better card with a Memory Bandwidth of 42.2GB/sec compared with the 8600GT which can only chuck out 22.4GB/sec.  If you need DX10 then it is worth changing...if not...save your money!

I don't know how reliable these Tom's Hardware charts are but comparing nVidia with nVidia should be OK and it supports the Bandwidth figures above.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_ ... &chart=292
(The 8600GT is the 256MB model but unless you're running 2 x High Res monitors it will make little difference)

Regards

Jim