Mid Range 8 Series announced, dated, priced.

[Atty]

Earlier this week review publications received their test kits for the GeForce 8300 through 8600. The bulk of these cards, the GeForce 8500 GT, GeForce 8600 GT and GeForce 8600 GTS will launch on April 17, with the GeForce 8300 GS and GeForce 8400 GS following soon after.

DailyTech published technical details of these cards last month (http://dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6477). In a nutshell:
GeForce 8600 GTS -- 256 MB GDDR3, 675 MHz core clock, 1000 MHz memory clock
GeForce 8600 GT -- 256 MB GDDR3, 540 MHz core clock, 700 MHz memory clock
GeForce 8500 GT -- 128 to 256 MB DDR2 or GDDR3, 450 MHz core clock, 700 MHz memory clockNVIDIA claims these three cards will be available at launch. The 8600 GTS will fill the $199 to $229 price point, followed by the 8600 GT ($149 to $159) and the GeForce 8500 GT ($89 to $129).

The GeForce 8400 GS and 8300 GS will bring up the rear with 450 MHz core clocks and 400 MHz memory clocks. However, these two GPUs will only show up in OEM systems and will not likely make an appearance in your local hardware store.:)


http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4775

8600GTS + 2.93GHz Core2 = 57xx in 3DMark06 (faster than 7950GT)
8600GT + 2.93GHz Core2 = 47xx in 3DMark06 (faster than 7900GS)

For the comparison:
7600GT + 2.93GHz Core2 = 3333 in 3DMark06: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=923714

Thus 8600GTS is over 70% faster than 7600GT in 3DMark06.

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=2231

[Spnkr]

The 8600 GTS is as good as mine as soon as it comes out :D . These cards are DX10, right?

[mR_r0b0to]

Yessss
just in time. i get my babysitting moneyz this week.
either the 8600GTS or GT..

EDIT: i'm kind of disappointed on the benchmarks <.<
hopefully they'll release better drivers or something.

[Limited]

Didn't they say they were going to release these before?

[Atty]

mR -- The reason the benchmarks are a bit low is that their is poor driver performance. My 8800GTS 640 even performs slow in a lot of Source games, not because it can't handle the game, but because of poor drivers (although the last update did do a bit of help.)

9mm -- They said they were releasing them and released information on them but never specified a date. They just released the day Saturday afternoon.

[Pooky]

Now that's MY kind of card, mid range :D

[mR_r0b0to]

mR -- The reason the benchmarks are a bit low is that their is poor driver performance. My 8800GTS 640 even performs slow in a lot of Source games, not because it can't handle the game, but because of poor drivers (although the last update did do a bit of help.)

9mm -- They said they were releasing them and released information on them but never specified a date. They just released the day Saturday afternoon.


hopefully when the release date comes, they'll have an update on drivers.. :dance:

[Varmint260]

Excellent! Now, if only they'll put a laptop version in my notebook when I order one. Either that or I'll have to live with a 7600 Go or 7900 Go series. But one of these might be a good buy. Probably gonna get my notebook before or during August... wonder if these will be pretty common and easy to order in a notebook by then?

[Atty]

By August, yes. Or you could E-PCI/E a 8900GTX. :)

[Zeph]

wtf, they preform that well on a 128-bit memory bus?

[TheGhost]

Nice... we going to see these things in laptops anytime soon?

[Zeph]

The 8600s should be in laptops sometime within the next month. The 8800s are simply too much for a laptop to handle. I expect the 8300 to be worked into some sort of integrated solution shortly after the 8600 is out.

[Teroh]

Sounds perfect, maybe I'll pick one up for the new computer I plan on building in the next couple months.

[mR_r0b0to]

wait so is the price for the 8800GTS going to go down?

[Atty]

Probably not. After the new set releases their won't be any significant price drop until the refresh.

[mR_r0b0to]

bleh.
8600 it is then..

[Atty]

Remember, if you get an eVGA card you can spend your money on an 8600GTS or something and within three months use that card to "Step Up" to a new card only paying the difference between the two. Pay $219 for a 8600GTS and two months later, once you've saved some cash, pay another $80 (which can easily be saved in that amount of time) for a 8900GT. :)

[mR_r0b0to]

cool...
i should do that... :)

[Atty]

Oh and I should mention, eVGA's lifetime warranty covers after market Heatsink installs and over clocking (if you do no physical damage to the card, obviously.)

[mR_r0b0to]

so eVGA's awesome.. for that step up program, i don't need to have bought the card from eVGA right?

[Atty]

Yes, you do. It has to be an eVGA card, why would they let you give them back some other company's card to give you one of theirs? :hurr:


http://evga.com/stepup/default.asp?switch=2

[mR_r0b0to]

i meant i could buy it from retailers..
that would be stupid if i tried to step up a bfg card or something, lol. :p

[Atty]

Oh, yeah. Like buy from NewEgg and yeah, will work. :)

[legionaire45]

http://www.tcmagazine.com/images/news/Hardware/geforce8300gt_001.jpg
8300 GT
http://www.ixbt.com/short/images/8500GT.jpg
8500 GT
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/04/geforce-8600-price.jpg
8600 GT
http://xtreview.com/images/G86-video-card.jpg
8600 GTS?

I is teh image eater.

[InnerGoat]

wtf, they preform that well on a 128-bit memory bus?

Yeah. Same was said for the 6600GT and 7600GT, being faster then the previous generation's high end.

[Mr Buckshot]

I'm going for the 8600 series all the way.

[Limited]

9mm -- They said they were releasing them and released information on them but never specified a date. They just released the day Saturday afternoon.
Weird, I could have sworn you made a thread saying the prices, I was like WTF that's cheap as chips

[someone]

I'm going for the 8600GT or GTS. But I still don't know which one to choose :P

[InnerGoat]

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=GA-86_256M

[mR_r0b0to]

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=GA-86_256M
cool. i'll wait for Newegg to get the EVGA cards..
your name's broken.

[Atty]

GeForce 8600 and 8500 unified shader amounts unveiled

DailyTech has come across more details of NVIDIA’s upcoming GeForce 8600 GTS, 8600 GT and 8500 GT (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6477) graphics processors. NVIDIA expects to unleash the GeForce 8600 and 8500-series (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6825) graphics processors later this month. AMD is ready to take on NVIDIA’s midrange offerings with its upcoming ATI Radeon HD (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6903)2600 and 2400 (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6451) offerings.

Slotting below NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB SKU (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5737) is the GeForce 8600 GTS. The top end G86-based graphics processor features 32-stream processors clocked at 1.45 GHz. NVIDIA pairs the 32-stream processors with 256MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1.0 GHz. A 128-bit memory interface connects the memory to the GPU for 32GB/sec of memory bandwidth.



Sporting lower clock speeds is the GeForce 8600 GT. The GeForce 8600 GT has the same 32-stream processors as the GTS; however, the unified shaders have a 1.18 GHz clock. Core and memory clock are also lower at 540 MHz and 700 MHz, respectively. Memory bandwidth is downgraded to 22.4 GB/sec as a result of the lower memory clocks.

NVIDIA GeForce 8-series
Model
8600 GTS 8600 GT 8500 GT

Stream processors
32 32 16

Core clock
675 MHz 540 MHz 450 MHz

Shader clock
1.45 GHz 1.18 GHz 900 MHz

Memory clock
1.0 GHz 700 MHz 400 MHz

Memory interface
128-bit 128-bit 128-bit

Memory bandwidth
32 GB/sec 22.4 GB/sec 12.8 GB/sec

Texture fill rate (Billion/sec)
10.8 8.6 3.6





Filling in the bottom of the retail GeForce 8-series lineup is the GeForce 8500 GT. The value model has 16-stream processors clocked at 900 MHz – half the amount present on the GeForce 8600-series. NVIDIA pairs the 450 MHz core with DDR2 memory clocked at 400 MHz. The GeForce 8500 GT features the same 128-bit memory interface as the GeForce 8600-series. Memory bandwidth is downgraded to 12.8 GB/sec.

Expect NVIDIA to launch its new midrange product lineup tomorrow (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6616). Additional details are already starting to leak out early (http://www.bootdaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=425&Itemid=59), and some brick-and-mortar stores already have the cards on the shelf.A bit of an update. :)

Edit: Due to the table not wanting to copy over properly the corisponding information is formated for each card, bold for 8600GTS, Italics for 8600GT, and normal for 8500GT. :)

[mR_r0b0to]

comes out today :)

[Reaper Man]

128-bit? EW. That'd be like... a downgrade. 7800GT atm. It's 256mb. What would happen if I put the two in SLI?

[mR_r0b0to]

even at 128-bit, it owns the 7800.

i think.. \_o.0_/

[Reaper Man]

even at 128-bit, it owns the 7800.

i think.. \_o.0_/
<_<. It's like a 7600... with dx10. Bleh.

[someone]

<_<. It's like a 7600... with dx10. Bleh.
I disagree. I think it's better than the 7900 series and it has dx10! Anyway, let's just wait for the benchmarks and other tests:)

[Atty]

Benchmarks you say? :O (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2970)

Also -- nVidia released new drivers for the G8's, Source issues have been resolved (according to some) and they officially support the G86/4. :)

[mR_r0b0to]

It's on newegg now....
also there's some 8500's there..
8600GTS is 200 dollars <.< so expensive. when are the 8900's coming out? i want to do the step up thing.. and there's a 90 day limit thing

[Atty]

No one knows. Whenever nVidia gets around to shrinking some things.


I'd go for a 8800GTS 320, to be honest. It's a bit more then the 8600GTS but you get a lot back. It's also that much less if you choose to step up (which, even if the 8900 isn't out, you can do to the GTX, for a bit of money. :\)

[Techno Dude]

Finally, some affordable Direct 10's
Looking forward for it lol.

[mR_r0b0to]

No one knows. Whenever nVidia gets around to shrinking some things.


I'd go for a 8800GTS 320, to be honest. It's a bit more then the 8600GTS but you get a lot back. It's also that much less if you choose to step up (which, even if the 8900 isn't out, you can do to the GTX, for a bit of money. :\)

i'll have to wait 1-2 months for the extra $100, so eh. might as well wait for the ati dx10...

[P-Thunder.]

Ive already orderd my 8600, i had to stretch to pay for that, so a 8800 is out of the question. My card will either arrive tonight or tomorow.