Hi,
Recenlty I upgraded from a asus agp 4x motherboard to a new intel motherboard, this board does not have onboard vedio so I was given a 8500GT xfx card for Rs.3000/- (75$) more like a standby to use until december when I decide to buy a more powerful card.

I was told that the 8500gt is not really a gaming card, and that my older 6800xt would probably outperform the 8500gt in older games because the 8600xt was a 256bit interface card and had ddr3 memory running at 1100mhz.
The 8500gt is a 128bit interface (I think) and has only ddr2 ram. But its core speed is much faster, 500Mhz.

For first few days I didnt even get time to try it out, but finally when I did was pleasantly suprised.

This card is able to run unreal tournament 2008 at 1400x900 at 25+ fps. My older card would not even be able to play the intro movie of that game, and I can get 8fps on collin mcrea dirt on the 8500gt, the 6800xt would not even load the intro movie of colin mcrea dirt.

So im thinking that the 8500gt can be more than just a casual card, I think I can play some older games on this card very well.

Id like to know where officially the 8500gt stands in comparassion to the 6800xt, both are xfx models.
If there is a chart comparing the performance of both cards, that would be nice.
Thanks.

Sarosh

In theory, the 6800XT with 256-bit DDR3 memory should perform better than the 8500GT with 128-bit DDR2 memory. But you have no way of making a fair comparison.

As I recall, your old system had a S478 P4, VIA based board w/4X AGP slot, DDR266 memory. Several of us tried to talked you out of investing any more money into it, but you thought otherwise. To put it bluntly, your old system sucked. Now you're trying to compare it's gaming performance against a Core 2 Duo system with 3GB RAM?

It's not the video card that's making your gaming experience better, it's the system the card's running in that's making the difference. The 8500GT w/DDR2 is one of the lowest end DX10 cards available...it's not a horrible card, but it's definitely not a great gaming card. You could have done much better & considering the rest of your hardware, you should have.

"And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

Here is what you can get for $25 more...

http://www.pcclub.com/product_detai...

TMP-Man

Asus P5W DH Deluxe
E8400 @ 3.6ghz 400x9 1.3v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 1700RPM 92MM + AS5
2GB OCZ 4-4-4-12 DDR2-800
120GB/300GB 7200RPM HD
EVGA 7600GT 650/1500 VF700 ALCU AS5

But on my older system games like Unreal Tournament 2008 and Collin McRae dirt would hang up at the intro movie.

I couldnt even watch the intro movies of those games on the 6800xt.

On the 8500gt I can go through the intro movies smoothly and even play the game smoothly at certain settings.

I dont think my motherboard, ram or cpu was preventing those games from loading up, was it? I am using the same bunch of software now as I was then, the updated dx versions and the latest drivers.

Sarosh

And also this card was given to me just as a sort of standby because my motherbaord does not have onboard card.
I've made a deal with my hardware guy that whenever I upgrade to a more powerful card he will take this one back and reduce the original amount from it.

My plant is to wait long and buy a card that will chew through all the previous games. I've been thourh 10 agp cards already, now I'm going to wait till 2009 and buy a proper card then that will munch through games like crysis at full settinsg.

Wish me luck to hold on till then.

Sarosh

"I've been thourh 10 agp cards already"

I know you've gone thru quite a few cards. As I recall it was an FX5200, then you burned thru a couple 6600GT's, then you bought the 6800XT. And now that I think about it, I remember one of the things we warned you about was that "XT" is nVidia's low end model & that the 6800XT wasn't much better than the 6600GT.

"I dont think my motherboard, ram or cpu was preventing those games from loading up, was it?"

You system was such a mess back then I don't know what you had going on. You had poorly matched hardware, your drivers were screwed up, you were attempting to overclock the video, etc. It was one huge *fuster-cluck*...lol! Your new system is infinitely better than what you had but your gaming experience is being held back by a weak video card.

"And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

Haha,
Yea it was a wild ride with the agp cards.
Started with a 4mb trident card, tnt2, geforce mx440se, fx5200, 6600gt, and then 6800xt.
There is one 5200Fx agp card in my shelf now too, which I must have used for about 20 hours total.

My intial plan was to not even buy a graphics card until 2009, the 8500gt is just a nice bonus, and im really suprised I can play some of the latest games at 800 resolution, and some even at 1400.
Few months back I also got a acer WS lcd monitor too.

I've been reading some Indian gaming forums, and I find that even people with 8600GTs are not able to play games like crysis at full settings.
And right now nvidia is releasing cards too frequently for me to buy one.

My plan is to hold on till 2009, and then purchase the best card I can for about Rs.10,000/-, that would be approx 250$.

I didnt even want to try any game on the 8500gt, but when I did I was realy pleasantly suprised, its definitely more than capable than running the latest games, just not at the best graphics.

If you'd like some idea about the prices here, take a look at

http://techshop.in/store/index.php?...

BTW, PCIE 2.0 cards will run in my motherboard right?

Sarosh

Once a month, Tom's Hardware updates the "Best Gaming Graphics Cards for the Money" article. Here's the April edition:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...

And if you check the very last page of that article, there's a chart that groups video cards into comparable performance groups. Notice that the 6600GT, 6800XT & 8500GT all belong to the same group.

"PCIE 2.0 cards will run in my motherboard right?"

Yeah, but don't go out of your way to get one as there's no performance advantage. You'll probably be surprised to know that there's very little performance difference between x4, x8 & x16 PCI-E:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...

"And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

Thanks for the links jam,
I have 2 friends coming from usa later this year, one in october another in december.

I've put aside 250$ max for a graphics card later this year, hopefully I will get a nice one that will allow me to enjoy all previous games at full settings.

Its already good to see the 9600GT to be priced within my budget. Maybe by the end of the year I will get a more awesome card for the same price.

Sarosh