What do you think of the Nvida 8500 gt?

Hi, I am wondering what the nvidia 8500 gt graphics card is like because I dont have an awful lot of money to spend but I would like to know if the nvidia 8500gt can handle games like counter strike source,half life 2 and fairly new games. Or would i be better off with a different graphics card for gaming? Would be grateful for any help possible:D

If you could afford it, take a look at the 8600. Not sure what your budget it, but both cards could handle the HL2 games pretty easily. They are both DX10, but both the 8500 and 8600 will get outdated pretty quickly once more DX10 games and cards come out. Fignewton50

That and in the comparison between the 8600 the 7900, the 7900 outperformed the 8600 in most categories. so that may be something to think about 

Ok thanks guys for the advice. I have just bought a mesh computer called the matrix A6000 XLM off the website www.meshcomputers.com so hopefully the nvidia 8500 gt will do the job for counter strike source and hl2! I appreciate the help :)

Ok thanks very much for the help. I have just bought a computer from www.meshcomputers.com its called the matrix A6000 xlm. Hopefully it will be able to run the source games and halo 2 on vista. Really appreciate the help :)

After looking at the specs of the 8500GT and comparing them to my 7300GT the 8500GT has 3.6billion something on the pixel fill rate while the 7300GT only has 2.6 something.

now the 7300GT is a low end card but it will play BF2 max at 1024x768 and will play oblivion very decently at 1024x768 if you turn shadows and grass off.

so im gonna say that the 8500GT will play Counterstrike source MAX With HDR and no AA at 1024x768 and wil play Halflife 2 at max also.

I have played Halflife 2 on my 7300GT and it plays good at max without HDR on ok with it on 

Ok thanks very much for that but because i am a bit of a computer noob i take it AA means anti-aliasing right? what does HDR mean??? I also have one more question about the nvidia 8500 gt. I have heard problems about it lately and some say it runs games like CSS very choppy if you have windows vista as your operating system. Is this true or could it be a lie?

Ok thanks very much for that but because i am a bit of a computer noob i take it AA means anti-aliasing right? what does HDR mean??? I also have one more question about the nvidia 8500 gt. I have heard problems about it lately and some say it runs games like CSS very choppy if you have windows vista as your operating system. Is this true or could it be a lie?

sn4k3_64

sorry to post so late on the topic. Id halfto say that it will perform good on windows vista because when i tryied out vista running a 7300GT i got better performance in some games. 

Ok thanks for the advice, if i just run it on medium graphics i take it i could put on AA on css and hl2 right? thanks very much thats all I need to know for now :)

Ok thanks for the advice, if i just run it on medium graphics i take it i could put on AA on css and hl2 right? thanks very much thats all I need to know for now :)

sn4k3_64

Yes it will play good. 

how much money do you got because for 90 bucks the 7600gt is a good deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130062 it will play games like battlefield 2142, half life 2, counterstrike,fear and others on high and newer games like supreme commander and oblivion on medium but if you dish out $130 bucks this card would be worth it it can play almost anything on high http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102022