Need help deciding... 7900 GS or 8600 GTS

[Thetargos]

I'm at the verge of upgrading my system, in fact in a few hours I may end up issuing my order. There is the chance that I'd be able to get a PCI-E 7900 GS, however it's subject to availability.

[Svartalf]

Well, it depends on what you're needing... You know what I've been saying on the matter.

The 8600GTS is a good bet if you're future proofing your rig and going the NVidia route with reasonably stable operation and the promise of extra performance in the next couple of months combined with CUDA and geometry shader support.

If you want full-on speed NOW for the stuff that's currently available and don't need CUDA or geometry shading, it's less of a requirement for a G80 board as the performance won't be the same (lower, for now...) and there's some things missing out of the G80 support in the drivers that may be a while in the coming. For that, many will find that the G70 route is a better buy overall.

[Thetargos]

My main problem is that I don't seem able to find a 7900 GS anywhere. The 8600 GTS has high availability.

[Svartalf]

My main problem is that I don't seem able to find a 7900 GS anywhere. The 8600 GTS has high availability.

Heh... Depends on how you're shopping, I guess.

7600GS cards still seem to abound and I've seen at least a few 7900GS cards on shelves in recent times, storefront. You'll do decently enough with the 8600GTS, I think. I don't think there's many problems per-se, just a few people have had some "deal breakers" with them that I had reasonable workarounds for.