XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT XXX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Ready Video Card (Dual DVI/S-Video)
See it at Amazon.com for $80.00Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Good card
I have Dell Dimension 8400 with single core P4 3.6Ghz/3GB RAM. This card works great in it. The 3DMark score is 4100 if you care (I didn't, I purchased it b/c my old card started giving me problems). When not under the load I can't say I hear any extra noise coming from it. Same under the load, but under the load my other fans get loud so maybe they just drown the fan on this card.
(5 out of 5)Great for years to come!
I bought expecting to be able to play games at medium quality. Boy, was I wrong. Let my first let readers know the complete specifications of my sub-$600 gaming/programming/linux rig:
***Motherboard: ABIT Fatal1ty AN9 32X
***Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.3GHz
***Memory: Corsair XMS 2GB
***Optical drive:Asus LightScribe 18x Drive
People have been trashing this video card all over the net ever since it came out. One particular reviewer said he didn't even know what type of buyer would buy it. Well, here's the answer: those of us on a who aren't much into spending over $600 on a single card alone (cheers to you if you can do that).
Anyways, if you want a short review, read the following sentence:
Bioshock (hottest game around) @ 1024*768 @ The HIGHEST possible settings without ever seeing a stutter.
If you want an inexpensive video card that will last you for years, this one's it. The reason I say this is because just as when Doom, Half-Life 2 and Farcry set the bar for hardware system requirements on 2004 and seeing how those who upgraded then are still able to play recent games without bigger upgrades (that being a dual core processor), expect this one to last even more than those good ol' 6800GT did in 2003/4. If Bioshock and Rainbow Six: Vegas run at the High settings on this puppy (both running on top of the Unreal 3 engine), expect Crysis (Crytek2 engine) and Half-Life Episode Two and Three to run without any issues (expect Crytek, Unreal and the Source engine to replicate their 2004's success).
Every game I've thrown at it, I've played at the highest setting (although I'm aware the Flight Simulator X can bring down even the hottest SLi-powered 8800GTX in the block). What's most important to me is to know that the Unreal 3 engine runs perfectly because it's a prime star of the current HD-generation games. I'll be even happier when the Crysis demo comes out later this month (I'll update then!).
A friend of mine has had a 6600GT (alongside 2GB of Patriot DDR2 Ram and an AMD X2 3800+ 2.0ghz processor) for over 3 years now and he can _still_ manage to play Rainbow Six: Vegas and Bioshock (Unreal 3 engine on both; note: Vegas needs a better computer than Bioshock). The importance of this that with this information I'm sure this 8600GT will work for at least as long as his has been working. Heck, Big Daddies bow down to this puppy ( ;)).
Note that the XXX stands for overclocked version (620mhz). That means that it's better than the regular 8600GT by quite a bit and that it can rival other brand's 8600GTS cards (not XFX's own 8600GTS XXX, though).
Because of the nature of powerful videocards, I'd recommend placing a cheapPCI Blower below the card. That'll ensure it doesn't ever get too hot.
Oh, and it works wonders on Linux (Nvidia graphics on linux put Ati to shame). =)
(5 out of 5)An amazing video card - Really.
* The good: This card performs MUCH better than I had expected. I hesitantly bought it for my cheapie backup computer which is a $300 SR2020NX Compaq from BestBuy. 1st I spent $50 for 2Gb of RAM which helped it, but not much. The only other mod is this XFX 8600GT video card, and WOW is my 1st impression. It plays Quake 4 very smoothly and it's beautiful. I just tried Enemy Territory - Quake Wars (Demo), and it plays smoothly as well.
* The bad: It is a bit noisy, and although it doesn't bother me a bit, some will complain after being used to their on-board video chip unit which doesn't NEED a fan.
* Overall this one is a winner and I recommend it without exception.
(5 out of 5)Good Performance
This video card have almost the same performance than a more expense 8600GTS, I try this with 3dmark 2006 with 2GB ram and amd 4000+ single core and i have 4300 3d mark points; the 8600gts gave me 4600 3dmark point, so is not necessary expend 35 bucks more jus for +10% of performance.
(5 out of 5)great value
Not the best card that cost 4 times more out there, but upgraded from 6800 to 8600 is heaven. I added one G bit of ram the same time; the result is excellent!