Re: BTW, Happy Independence Day for Americans here!

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:53:39 -0400, Phil Yff <phil.yff@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

<snip>

The 8500GT is a reasonably priced card that provides full HD support
including full HDCP certification. The 8500GT is also one of the few GPUs
that offload 100% of Blu-ray and HD DVD H.264 video decoding from the CPU.
The 8600GT and 8600GTS also have this capability and boast higher levels of
performance. It should be noted that the top of the line and much more
powerful 8800 series does not support HD multimedia as well as the 8500 and

Right now, I'm crying a little inside. The 8800 buys me some slight
h.264 accleration. The guys who held out for the budget cards? They
get full off-cpu decoding.

8600 (and the corresponding 8400M and 8600M notebook cards). The exception
is the 8800 ultra that was released a little over a month and a half ago.

Multimedia is NOT enough of a reason to buy an ultra though. It's
totally way beyond the pale for just that.

Unless... Anyone out there wanna buy a lightly used 8800GTX? :-)

My recommendation is that if you are not a big gamer go with the 8500GT.
It will give acceptable gaming performance but won't knock your socks off.
It will knock your socks off with respect to the entire gamut of HD
multimedia including Blu-ray and HD DVD. If you are a big gamer as well as
a multimedia enthusiast go with the 8600GT which doesn't cost that much
more than the 8500GT or the more powerful 8600GTS which equals the gaming
performance of the more expensive 7900 and far surpasses it in terms of
multimedia support.

Given the magical girl obsession, I *suspect* that any games that
Galen would be likely to play on a PC will come with a CERO-Z rating,
and wont be needing the likes of a serious 3D accelerator. :-)

I'm still PC gaming. But I love my 360 and PS3 more than my PC right
now.

If you're an ultra-extreme gamer go with a pair of 8800 Ultras (you'll need
an SLI capable system for that and liquid cooling).

But your wallet will never forgive you!

However, if you have
that type of money to throw at your computer, it's best to build separate
boxes for your gaming and your multimedia.

I'm not sure about that one. If he's got that kinda scratch to waste,
his Gaming PC should be able to eat just about any media he can throw
at it.

That brings us full circle. If you're a multimedia enthusiast the GeForce
8500 GT is an outstanding graphics processor and it surpasses most other
cards (even far more expensive ones) in terms of HD multimedia support. It
comes in with either 256MB or 512MB of on-board memory - get the extra
memory it's well worth it.

Seconded, if you can find it in AGP. I searched however and didn't
find one either. I'm not seeing any of the GeForce 8 series stuff in
AGP.

If I'm reading his other post correctly,this puts Galen right back in
the position I was in earlier this year. AGP is a dead technology. A
motherboard upgrade to a PCI-E compatible board will likely
necessitate a CPU socket change, and so, a new chip.

At this point we're past the threshold of mere upgrade, and a whole
new PC starts to look real good.
--
Abraham Evangelista
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: BTW, Happy Independence Day for Americans here!
    ... Multimedia is NOT enough of a reason to buy an ultra though. ... It will give acceptable gaming performance but won't knock your socks off. ... cards in terms of HD multimedia support. ... Yes, if he doesn't have and needs PCI-E, he'll need a new motherboard. ...
    (rec.arts.anime.misc)
  • Re: Pocket PC and Palm Compared
    ... > Roy Schestowitz wrote: ... >> you are after gaming, multimedia, good WiFi+Bluetooth support, a lot ... >> newsgroup. ...
    (comp.sys.palmtops.pilot)
  • Re: BTW, Happy Independence Day for Americans here!
    ... It will give acceptable gaming performance but won't knock your socks off. ... multimedia including Blu-ray and HD DVD. ... If you're a multimedia enthusiast the GeForce ... cards in terms of HD multimedia support. ...
    (rec.arts.anime.misc)
  • Re: What percentage of the computer using population have XP?
    ... There is quite a bit more than just "new paint and shiny fenders" in ... especially in the areas of multimedia and gaming. ... Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • XP locks up when a CD is inserted...
    ... I have a client with a Multimedia XP, ... He brought it to me because everytime he inserts a CD, or a DVD, or any ... type of CD into this drive, and it locks up. ... play any CD in safe mode, but as soon as you boot it up in normal mode, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded)