Gaming 9600GT any good?

[Harsky]

I bought a 8600GT graphics card last year and I am now giving serious consideration to upgrading again. I went to ebuyer and I noticed that a 9600GT card is literally only pennies more expensive than a 8800GT. I have to ask, consideing I only play Team Fortress 2, how much of a boost can I get with a 9600GT card?

 

[CockroachMan]

Considering you play only TF2.. There won't be much difference, TF2 uses the Half Life 2 engine which is 4 years old already.. a 8600GT should be more than enough for it..

Weird to see the 8800GT cheaper than the 9600GT, AFAIK the 8800GT has a better performance overall..

 

[xcalibur]

Considering you play only TF2.. There won't be much difference, TF2 uses the Half Life 2 engine which is 4 years old already.. a 8600GT should be more than enough for it..

Weird to see the 8800GT cheaper than the 9600GT, AFAIK the 8800GT has a better performance overall..

The 8800GT is one generation behind. Get the 9800 GT. Its an updated 8800GT and is as cheap -if not cheaper- than the 8800GT and has a great performance.

 

[Trolly]

You won't get any extra performance on TF2 with that card. Period.
It's not worth upgrading until you really need to IMO. You're just impulse buying now (no offence).

 

[Harsky]

You won't get any extra performance on TF2 with that card. Period.
It's not worth upgrading until you really need to IMO. You're just impulse buying now (no offence).

None taken. I guess when I sit down and think about it, all I'm trying to do is squeeze out a few extra performance out of only ONE PC game.

 

[xcalibur]

You won't get any extra performance on TF2 with that card. Period.
It's not worth upgrading until you really need to IMO. You're just impulse buying now (no offence).

None taken. I guess when I sit down and think about it, all I'm trying to do is squeeze out a few extra performance out of only ONE PC game.

A game which doesn't even need all that much to begin with. Unless you're running the game with an uber high res, I don't suppose you'd really need that extra power.

 

[Richy Freeway]

Going from an 8600GT to a 9600GT will make a LOT of difference in TF2.

I run at 1280x1024 and it made a very noticeable improvement. Even with everything turned on high it runs perfectly.

 

[Trolly]

I went from an FX5200 PCI card to the HD3870, and the only thing I found noticeable was the lighting. And that was a fairly minor improvement, so I'm sure 8600GT to 9600GT makes next to no difference to a normal person.
Not saying you're a weirdo or anything lol, just many PC enthusiasts manage to spot even the most minute of details, which the average gamer wouldn't.

 

[dark42]

I have a 9600GT, it's great, only problem is there are no hackintosh drivers, so I can't play around in OSx86.

Otherwise game performace in Windows is great, and linux drivers work with some tweaking in Ubuntu.

Oh and TF2 plays at max settings on my machine at 1280x1024, with Athlon X2 2.2Ghz, 2GB RAM, ASUS A8N5X mobo.

 

[Richy Freeway]

I went from an FX5200 PCI card to the HD3870, and the only thing I found noticeable was the lighting. And that was a fairly minor improvement, so I'm sure 8600GT to 9600GT makes next to no difference to a normal person.
Not saying you're a weirdo or anything lol, just many PC enthusiasts manage to spot even the most minute of details, which the average gamer wouldn't.

I'm not saying a minute detail, I'm saying it was a massive improvement in performance.

The 8600GT isn't a very good card, I know, I owned one for long enough!

 

[DSGamer64]

If you are going to upgrade, actually upgrade to a new card that has better performance. While the 8800GT is more powerful then the 8600, the 9600GT isn't anymore powerful, just supports a newer version of DirectX and is PCIe 2.0 compatible. If you want a true upgrade, you should go for the 9800 and just save yourself some trouble. I know it isn't cheap but it would be a better choice imo.

 

[Jiggah]

I went from an FX5200 PCI card to the HD3870, and the only thing I found noticeable was the lighting. And that was a fairly minor improvement, so I'm sure 8600GT to 9600GT makes next to no difference to a normal person.
Not saying you're a weirdo or anything lol, just many PC enthusiasts manage to spot even the most minute of details, which the average gamer wouldn't.

You sure you just didn't forget to change the settings after upgrading? For that high of an upgrade, unless you're playing ancient games, there will be a huge noticeable difference. Of course, noticeable difference also requires that the rest of the computer can actually perform along with the card.

 

[CockroachMan]

I went from an FX5200 PCI card to the HD3870, and the only thing I found noticeable was the lighting. And that was a fairly minor improvement, so I'm sure 8600GT to 9600GT makes next to no difference to a normal person.
Not saying you're a weirdo or anything lol, just many PC enthusiasts manage to spot even the most minute of details, which the average gamer wouldn't.

Really? I just went from a FX5200 to a 9600GT and it looks like another game to me.. lighting, texture, shader effects.. it's a lot better now. Of course I changed my CPU and memory too

 

[Richy Freeway]

If you are going to upgrade, actually upgrade to a new card that has better performance. While the 8800GT is more powerful then the 8600, the 9600GT isn't anymore powerful, just supports a newer version of DirectX and is PCIe 2.0 compatible. If you want a true upgrade, you should go for the 9800 and just save yourself some trouble. I know it isn't cheap but it would be a better choice imo.

Are you saying that the 9600GT isn't any faster than the 8600GT?

 

[DSGamer64]

If you are going to upgrade, actually upgrade to a new card that has better performance. While the 8800GT is more powerful then the 8600, the 9600GT isn't anymore powerful, just supports a newer version of DirectX and is PCIe 2.0 compatible. If you want a true upgrade, you should go for the 9800 and just save yourself some trouble. I know it isn't cheap but it would be a better choice imo.

Are you saying that the 9600GT isn't any faster than the 8600GT?

No, the 9600GT isn't any better then the 8800GT, it is better then the 8600 but not by a huge stretch.

 

[Richy Freeway]

Ahh, yes. I agree that it's not any faster than the 8800GT.

It's definitely a lot faster than the 8600 though!

http://review.zdnet.com/graphics-cards/asu...6-32864307.html

 

[Trolly]

Ahh, yes. I agree that it's not any faster than the 8800GT.

It's definitely a lot faster than the 8600 though!

Shutup shutup shutuuuup, I meant the 8600 ¬.¬
QUOTEYou sure you just didn't forget to change the settings after upgrading? For that high of an upgrade, unless you're playing ancient games, there will be a huge noticeable difference. Of course, noticeable difference also requires that the rest of the computer can actually perform along with the card.

Looks like I got plenty of criticism for what I said. I did exaggerate I guess. But that's because you'd still expect a much larger change between them when upgrading that much. Textures, lighting and such did look a bit sharper, but only a bit.
Considering I went from not being able to even play Doom 3 (or anything newer) to being able to play Crysis on all Medium and a few on High.
The point I was trying to make was the Source engine copes perfectly fine with all graphics cards. If he upgrades to a 9600GT, he'll see an FPS increase but no graphical increase, even when it was perfectly playable already. If he was asking about a newer game such as BioShock, the question would be a no-brainer, as you'd be able to step up the graphics a lot.
Hopefully that rant helped. Point is, TF2 was perfectly playable before, and looked nice with an ancient card. When I upgraded to a much better card, I saw only a little improvement. Definitely wouldn't've been worth the money just for that game.

 

[Deleted User]

I got a 9600GT and it's horrible. Get the 8800GT instead. Your motherboard will have to not have the VIA chipset to use the 8800GT. Mine does which is why I got the 9600GT instead. Also poke around the NVIDIA forums to find the best drivers. Or just buy a Radeon 4850 they're good too.

 

[Gman 101]

Or just buy a Radeon 4850 they're good too.

+1

Red team's won this round of the graphics card wars (and buried Nvidia in bigger shit than they already are).

HD4850 = Cheap + much better performing than 8800GT and better than 9800GTX+

 

[Deletable_Man]

First you should figure out why your comp is so bad it can't run TF2 all it wants. I just have a 7950GT and run TF2 full up all night and day 75fps no probs (5000+ 64 X2, 2gb DDR2). So... odd yeah?