welcome
well here goes, your about to get caught up in the contradictorary world of mid-range graphics.
8600GS for the most part and DX10 aside, will not be faster than the 7900GS. it is a lower mid range part
the 7900 while based off a previous generation chip, the DX9c capable G71, is actually the faster card. it is a previous gen high end card.
im not certain of the overall specs but it must have at least 20 pixel pipe lines and 12-16 ROPs (render outputs), also its 256bit memory interface makes its memory bus width double that of the 8600's (so if the both used the same ram, the 7900 would have double the memory bandwidth)
now your probably saying, the 8600GT/GS have 32/16 pixel shaders a piece and theyre clocked pretty fast. well in the video world they dont call a spade a spade. what the 8600's have is stream processors, theyre fairly simple processors but they are very versatile and very fast. they can be used for pixel, vertex and geometry shading.
the 7900GS uses the now "old way" of doing things, it comprises 20 dx9c capable pixel shaders and 7 vertex shaders. seperated processors that only do one job. because they only have one job, they can be very good at it and so the G7x's do have plenty of raw power.... especially in popular games out now that use DX9
the 7900 also, (im educated guessing here) has 12 ROP's and texture units. if i have done my homework right, i think im right in saying that the 8600's will only have at the very most 8 (though i think it might actually be just 6). (on the 8600GT, even less on the GS)
and in todays games, where texturing is still heavily used its clear to see why the 7900 will best the 8600's. and when coupled to that memory bus, with its much higher bandwidth it is able to handle these textures (with filtering and anti-aliasing applied) much easier.
the 7900, while lacking DX10 features, is a very well balanced card. these new 8600's seem to be more focused on shader power...and rightly so, thats where we are headed, but its taking a while.
if you jus wanted a good gaming card without consideration for anything else such as filter quality or power consumption or heat, the 7900GS is a better choice. because by the time you cant play games on it because theyre all DX10 you''l probably a) be ready to buy a new computer b)not care and c) the 8600GS/GT's probably wont have the grunt to play them anyway.
i would personally chose the 8600's - im not a huge PC gamer anymore so outright performance doesnt concern me. id chose the 8600's based on their power consumption and their ability to decode HD video, because i value longer battery life and being able to watch hi-def more easily over gaming
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile...rk-List.844.0.html?&or=&search=&sort=3dmark06
have a look there, the 7900GS is above the 8600's in the list.
word of warning though, 3d mark while a standard way to compare cards, is not the be all and end all. recent cards like the 8600.... given their heavy shader power usually put out some decent scores...roughly close to previous gen's high end.
but dont be fooled, actual game benchmarks wit todays games (with all their texturing and especially with AA/AF applied) the 8600's performance doesnt look so rosy
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
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