There's lots of stuff in the sub $200 market that will outclass an 8600. There's actually stuff in the sub $100 market that will outclass an 8600 now as both the RadeonHD 4850 and Geforce GTS 250 can be had for around the $100 mark.
If you have $200 to spend your choices are pretty much the RadeonHD 5830 or the Nvidia GTX 460.
Unless you have over-riding motives, such as Linux support, corporate ethics, or... well... just look up Nvidia + my username in advance search to get an idea... either card will pretty much rock anything you can throw at them.
Nah, no odd OS issues. Still using XP Pro right now. I have a 600 watt power supply so power isn't an issue. Is the a sub 300 card that would be better than the 2 you suggested or the extra dough wouldn't deliver the performance to warrant it?
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I... think you asked if a card in the $200-$300 price bracket would be worth the cost..|
Originally Posted by MT_Head
Is the a sub 300 card that would be better than the 2 you suggested or the extra dough wouldn't deliver the performance to warrant it?
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well. On the Nvidia side. No. Your 600watt power supply isn't going to be enough to drive the GTX 470. I had one through here a couple weeks ago and I pretty much had to use one of my 850-watt power supply to drive it for full clocks. The average street price on a 470 is also still over $300, although manufacturers are now starting to offer mail-in-rebates. You could pick up a good Evga model for around $305 if you shop carefully.
On the ATi side... yes.
You can pick up a RadeonHD 5850 with no tricks, no mail-in-rebates, for under $300. What's more, you can find a good brand, such as XFX for these prices.
Now, I'd recommend the ATi card for several reasons... least of which being OpenGL support. According to posts on Nvidia's own Nzone forums Nvidia has been pulling back on OpenGL support. Since there's already been a couple of long-drawn out beat-downs on this subject, here's the short version:
Microsoft's proprietary Graphics API is known as DirectX. DirectX 10 was developed on Windows NT5, but only released on Windows NT6. This means the last version of DirectX Windows NT5 supports is DirectX 9.
The Industry standard Graphics API is OpenGL which is overseen by an organization called Khronos. Various versions of OpenGL can be roughly matched to various versions of DirectX:
If you are using Windows Xp you are software limited to DirectX 9. You cannot take advantage of graphical effects and performance optimizations found in later versions of DirectX, even if your physical graphics card supports those graphical effects and performance optimizations in the hardware.
- DirectX 09 ~ OpenGL 2.0 ES
- DirectX 10 ~ OpenGL 3.x
- DirectX 11 ~ OpenGL 4.x
If you are using Windows Xp you can STILL take advantage of OpenGL.
What this means is that games using the OpenGL API will give you the same visual imagine on Windows 7 as they give you on Windows Xp on the same hardware.
Games using the DirectX API will give you a different visual image on Windows 7 as they give you on Windows Xp with the same hardware.
So, Nvidia pulling back from OpenGL is, well, discouraging. Basically a flip-flop of the past... well... years really.
Then there's the power issue. a 5850 will run at full clocks on a 600 watt processor. So you'll get the full performance of the card.
Then there's also the heat issue. Nvidia actually has a Fermi-Certified Case program, which is kind of required as both the GTX 470 and 480 have been recorded topping 200 degrees Fahrenheit. You need some serious cooling to run a 470 or 480.
The 5850? Thermal-wise it's not that far off the pace of a 4870. In most cases it'll put-off less heat than a 4870 if you grab one of the ducted fan cards.
Are either a really big jump over the GTX 460 or RadeonHD 5830?
Honestly, if you've been running an 8600 in the games you mentioned with all details enabled my guess is that you've got screen resolution of 1440*900 or lower.
In these resolutions... no.
you'd have to be pushing 1920*1200 or higher before the 5850 separates itself from the 5830.
Ok so it looks like I will be going with the RadeonHD 5850! I appreciate your input, sir! 
Oh boy, I never thought I'd see the day that I'm about to say this, buuuut...
The GTX 460 is the single best bang-for-your-buck card out there right now. Though it's SIMILAR to its 465 and 470 bretheren, a 600 watt power supply should be able to handle it just as well as it could handle a 5850. A 460 is usually cheaper than a 5850 and can stand toe-to-toe with it in any battle. It's the rare gem in nVidia's horrible pool of 400 series cards... I personally have a 5770 and said I'd never go back to nVidia after they messed up with their 200 series and 400 series, but they took the market in a chokehold with the 460.
Point being, if you're wanting to spend under about $250 for a card, there is no better card than the GTX 460 right now, and though I've almost become an ATi fanboy, I will concede that the 460 is better price-for-power than anything ATi has at this moment. There is no reason not to get the 460. Period.
I need one that I can run CoH, DCUO and SWTOR at good to excellent settings with decent FPS. I currently have 4 gigs of RAM, an ASUS GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz dual core CPU. It's only PCIE 1, but as I understand it, that slot will run a a PCIE 2 card, just not as well as the 2 would, right?
I'd prefer to keep it at $200 or less but will go as high as $300 if the performance is leaps and bounds above the lower card.
Just looking for info or links or whatever you guys can offer.