7900gs or 8600gt - both $100

[bengance]

I'm getting the following:
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail - $70

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $130

to go with a E6420 I got already.

Last item I need to upgrade is a video card. This computer will be in the living room (Vista MCE) so I like the idea of the silent MSI card. And I hear the 8600 have the PureVideo 2 decoding to help video playback. However, I also have read that the 7900GS are a better performer (not sure what the KO means though). Which one guys?

MSI NX8600GT-T2D256EZ GeForce 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Silent Heat Pipe Video Card - Retail - $110

EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail - $105

EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $99

 

[veg1992]

I'm getting the following:
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail - $70

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $130

to go with a E6420 I got already.

Last item I need to upgrade is a video card. This computer will be in the living room (Vista MCE) so I like the idea of the silent MSI card. And I hear the 8600 have the PureVideo 2 decoding to help video playback. However, I also have read that the 7900GS are a better performer (not sure what the KO means though). Which one guys?

MSI NX8600GT-T2D256EZ GeForce 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Silent Heat Pipe Video Card - Retail - $110

EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail - $105

EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $99

depends since its a media PC - 8600gt is better, gaming wise the KO 7900 GS is better

 

[veg1992]

another suggestion is the 8600gts, it performs okay in some games, and also has Purevideo2

 

[aaronkupen]

It depends, if I was getting one I would pick the 8600gt because of the better image quality. The 7900gs will do a little bit higher settings in games, namely higher AA, but for the games that I play the better quality AA/AF on the 8 series would be more beneficial to me. It's your call.

 

[Sora]

The 7900GS will get plenty more frames than an 8600GT ever could....simple as that.

 

[maroon1]

7900GS performs better in most cases