New Computer Specs

Originally Posted by Matsta

WTF Pentium Core 2 Duo? The dual Pentium's are alrite but theyre more of a baby core 2 duo. Also the E6600 is old, the've got replacements of them now.
The 8600GT is a piece of Junk, you better off going with a 7600GT or 7900GS like you picked Duality, but if you want to stretch your budget , a 8800GTS is a fine choice.
Also i'm guessing your on a tight budget, because the CPU and mobo are really cheap atm

Normally the excitement created by next generation hardware would be enough to fuel us for two days worth of testing and writing. However, after a few tests something just did not seem right, not for a brand new mid-range graphics card. The 8600 GTS seemed far too slow and after messing around with various drivers and hardware configurations it became clear that the 8600 GTS was in fact slow!

Despite the fact that with maximum in game quality settings the 8600 GTS delivered playable performance in X3: Reunion, Far Cry, Supreme Commander and Prey at 1920x1200, it was still slow compared to the competition. It is important to keep in mind that the 8600 GTS currently costs 20% more than the 7900 GS, because in many of our tests we found the 7900 GS to be faster. However, the real problem surfaces when you consider that the 8800 GTS (320MB) graphics cards cost just $75 US more, making them about 35% more expensive. This sounds fine until you put the 8600 GTS head to head with the 8800 GTS (320MB); needless to say the latter is significantly faster!

The only advantage the 8600 GTS has over existing mid-range graphics cards is its Direct X10 support and full H.264 video decoding. Both are nice features, but whether or not they make purchasing the 8600 GTS worth it will depend on the user’s needs. Furthermore, it is yet to be proven if the 8600 GTS graphics cards will even be powerful enough to drive upcoming DX10 games. The Inno3D version of the 8600 GTS is just as uninspiring as the GPU itself. While not entirely Inno3D’s fault, their package consists of almost nothing and what you get is little more than a Nvidia reference card. The only bonus is that this should be one of the cheapest 8600 GTS graphics cards available and it comes with a 2 year warranty should you keep the card that long.