GeForce 8600 GT

[Penthesilea]

So... this card has to be atleast two years old, but I was wondering how well it stands up these days.

They ordered one for a PC here at work and it's sat there forever because it wasn't strong enough for what we needed.

Any idea how it'll fare in this gaming market?

[Olo401]

If you have an older machine it'll do the job. Newer games might give it trouble though, especially on large monitors with higher res & more graphic demand. Let's put it this way.. I have an 8600GT that I was using with a 19" monitor and it played FFXI great on max settings. When I got Warhammer it ran pretty well until I got into busy areas or any RvR action.

On newer stuff it probably won't run very well unless your settings are turned down.

[Penthesilea]

That's the thing, I only have a laptop right now.

I don't know all that much about building a bad ass PC, but I've built two so-so machines, and just wondering if it'll do the job.

Also can you have two video cards to help one another, or do you get into compatibility issues. Cause if I do build a new PC, I wouldn't mind having this as a 2ndary complementing another newer card.

Essentially, I've got a free 8600GT, what should I do with it?

[Isiolia]

According to this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rd,2521-8.html a DDR3 (better) 8600GT will be a notch under a DDR2 HD4650 (lesser version of the card), which run around $50-60. So it's certainly at the low end of the spectrum now.

Browsing some of their charts, I'd say it'd likely do fine for less demanding titles such as Left 4 Dead, and may run some other games passably at low settings. Probably not something you'd want in a primary gaming machine though.