Does the 8600 GTS work well?

[chalewa]

I want to buy this card..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130084

does it work well in ubuntu? currently have an ati card, and i can't stand it anymore. so much tearing and crap. ive heard that nvidia is better.

will this get the job done for me? will it handle playing 720p?


or if there are any other suggestions? im willing to spend what it takes to make the video look better but i would like to keep it under 150 if at all possible

[sloggerkhan]

what ATI card do you have?
IMO newer ati cards properly installed with the latest drivers will give you much better video playback than nVidia cards is that's what's important to you.

I have an 8600 gt, not gts (and gts is supposed to be a step up, right?) and you can see some benchmarks from phoronix test suite here:
http://global.phoronix-test-suite.co...45-17767-28213

I was gone while most of them ran, but for gaming it's not half bad. @ 1680x1050 is got 80+ FPS for most of the games tested.
Video playback isn't really benchmarked, and keep in mind that no linux card currently supports accelerated decode for anything but mpg2, so there is often a cpu decode bottleneck. The best playback I've ever gotten on linux has been from ati cards, particularly taking image scaling (ie 720x480 --> 1680xX). The nvidia is just okay.

[shazbut]

I wouldn't bother with the 8600GTS at all, it's pretty much just an 8600GT with higher clocks. Better off getting a 9600GT for about the same price, and it has double the number of shaders/fillrate. Even an 8800GS/9600GSO (both the same card) would be better than an 8600GTS, probably for less money too. I'm pretty sure the 8 series cards work with the restricted drivers manager, not sure about the 9 series though. Someone with such a card can correct me, I'm still using a 6600GT.

Good site to compare the capabilities of all these cards:
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=4

[chalewa]

i have an ati x600, so its pretty old... but i guess i was under the impression that nvidia played better in linux.

i wish there was a way to try the card out before you buy it haha

[shazbut]

That was probably the case a couple years ago but ATI support seems to be improving a lot with their more recent cards. I think the 4800 series cards had linux support on the day they shipped. I'd consider buying an ATI 4600 series card when they are released, to replace my ageing 6600GT, I don't want something too power hungry.

[tuxxy]

I want to buy this card..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130084

does it work well in ubuntu? currently have an ati card, and i can't stand it anymore. so much tearing and crap. ive heard that nvidia is better.

will this get the job done for me? will it handle playing 720p?


or if there are any other suggestions? im willing to spend what it takes to make the video look better but i would like to keep it under 150 if at all possible

Im running that card right now in this system and it runs like a dream, out of the box usability, just required to enable the driver provided.

The 8600 8800 ranges are great cards and good value for money now, you can be assured that card will run excellent but what else would you expect from nvidia

I wouldn't bother with the 8600GTS at all, it's pretty much just an 8600GT with higher clocks. Better off getting a 9600GT for about the same price, and it has double the number of shaders/fillrate. Even an 8800GS/9600GSO (both the same card) would be better than an 8600GTS, probably for less money too. I'm pretty sure the 8 series cards work with the restricted drivers manager, not sure about the 9 series though. Someone with such a card can correct me, I'm still using a 6600GT.

Yes and the 9600GT is basically a rebadged 8600GT so for the price difference I know which I would go for =p

[shazbut]

Whoa there, check the link I posted before. The 8600GT and 9600GT are poles apart.
8600GT = 32/8/16/128bit (shaders/ROPs/textures/memory bus)
9600GT = 64/16/32/256bit (so roughly double the 8600GT)

Closest 9 series to an 8600GT is the 9500GT. Stupid marketers messing up naming conventions.
Not as bad as the 8800GS/9600GSO thing though...