I need help from graphic cards experts.

[lackofcolor]

Hello guys.

i am going to buy a graphic card, i live in lebanon so the prices are different and higher from like the USA and other places. Anyway first i chose to get the EVGA 8600GT 256MB DDR3 at 181 $ and i was very convinced in buying it. But then i saw the ASUS 8600GT 51MB DDR3 at 230$ and i have ordered it now and i'm going to get it tomorrow. but now i'm not very convinced about it and i have some doubts, i couldn't find many reviews about it and some where saying that i won't actually be needing the 512MB since the card is 128-bit so the extra money i'm paying is kinda wasted.

What should i do guys? which one should i choose? or should i choose an another card in the same price range?

thanks for the help.

Edit:sorry i have removed the links in case it's against the rules.

[daver]

dunno if this is too late (haven't been around this forum in AGES...) but...

i couldn't find any Asus 8600GT's at 512MB. for all the ones i found, they seemed pretty sketchy from the websites I passed by, and absolutely no reviews. but there was a review for the 512MB PNY 8600GT. according to the review, the XFX 8600GT Fatal1ty edition fared better overall. i can say for sure that the XFX 8600GT Fatal1ty is a good graphics card, because i've got 2 in SLI mode right now (bought 1, and teh 2nd came 50%).

honestly, that extra memory will not make too much of a difference if your other hardware isn't top notch. for example, if your processor is quite old and you don't have enough RAM, then running Bioshock with 512MB of video memory isn't going be any better than 256MB. for example, Bioshock looks just the same whether or not I am using my two video cards in SLI mode (my mobo has a hard switch i can flip to go between normal and SLI mode).

simply put, i would just stick to the cheaper of the two.

[<lie<onvert]

If you haven't checked already, you may need a power supply upgrade too. Most stock PCs ship with a 250-300w PS. Really aggressive VPUs sometimes need 350w or more. You may not be able to run in SLI mode and your card may seem to malfunction if it's underpowered. The good news is, PS are cheap!
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