graphics card question.... sorry.

I just need to know one thing....

Does anyone know the difference between these two cards?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8520932&productCategoryId=abcat0507002&type=product&tab=2&id=1186007060320#productdetail

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=205028788&SearchEngine=ya&SearchTerm=205028788&Type=PI&Category=Comp&dcaid=17194

They look the same but the price change is so different that I'm not really sure. Any help is appreciated.

The Best Buy one is only $15 more than buy.com's normal price, and with the buy.com you've also got a rebate in there.

They appear to be the same card, to me, unless I overlooked something.

Looks to me like the only difference is the manufacturer. The Bestbuy one is made by XFX, and the Buy.com one is made by EVGA.

I've never owned any XFX hardware, so I can't comment on it. I do have two EVGA GeForce 8800's, though, and I've got no complaints. I did have trouble with a motherboard from EVGA, though, if that matters. I don't hold it against them, though. Their phone support is top notch.

Not that an 8500 is that great of a card to begin with, but for 60 bucks, you probably can't go wrong. Even if you don't like it, you could probably eBay if for the same amount. If I were in the market for a video card, I'd probably give that one a try.

faster core clock on the more expensive model (possibly factory overclocked, but not by much), different company (XFX vs EVGA), a quieter cooling system on the more expensive one, (check the images) and a rebate on the cheaper one.

the cheaper one also doesn't list an onboard dvd decoder, but I imagine it's there (does any modern card not have this?)

I would not go for a 8500, it is only slightly better than the 8400 (and I had that, it sucks). The 8500 cards are good for office work, but not for SL. The step up to a 8600 makes a really big difference, and that's what i would recommend.

Thank you. That helps a lot!

I second Daniel - go for the 8600 GT. I have used both and the 8600 is a much better card.

OK, I know it's bad form to quote yourself, but I'm about to argue with myself, which is probably even worse, so I guess it works.

I want to apologize, Zeenith, for giving you bad advice. I've changed my mind. I would not give that card a try. While it's true that for just $60, you don't have a lot to lose if you don't like the thing, I can almost guarantee you that you won't, so it's not worth the bother. As others have stated, the 8500 is a low end card, not well suited to the demands of a graphics intensive program like SL.

Go with an 8600 or better. Buy.com has some great deals on 8600's. You can get a 256MB version for $75-200, or a 512 for $180-200.

Thanks. I saw one at buy.com that said it was "overclocked" but I'm not quirte sure what that means. I'm guessing it means the the GPU speed was upped a bit more? Hmmm... I wanna get a 512 one, but I only have like 130 to spend unless I get one at bestbuy 'cause I have a gift card there but everything cost more so yeah... The only issue now is that there are so many different ones. What's the difference between a GT and a GTS?

Yes, overclocked means the core speed and memory speeds have been raised a bit over what the default speeds are. In most cases that's no problem, however I have seen cases with BFG, XFX, and EVGA factory overclocked cards that were unstable BECAUSE of this overclock. The fix is to underclock (lower) it back to what speed nVidia recommends, but that also voids the warranty! so be careful. If it's an overclocked card, try and get the one with the much better cooling on it. (larger heatsinc, copper- not aluminum, larger fan with higher rated CFM, etc)
The difference between the GT and GTS is basically speed & price, but I haven't read the fine specs to be completely sure.

You can find all the (default) specs at http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce8.html

Overclocking, of course, changes things, but those are the specs as designed by nVidia. For what it's worth, I don't recommend overclocking. The risks far outweigh the benefits in my opinion. At normal speeds, all the components work in sync. As soon as you overclock something, you throw all of that out of whack, which can lead to all manner of stability issues. After learning the hard way, I abandoned overclocking long ago.

You can think of an overclocked machine sort of like owning a chopper, rather than a factory stock motorcycle. If you know what you're doing mechanically, and part of the fun of ownership for you is constantly tinkering with the thing to keep it running, then get a chopper. But if all you want to do is ride, get a stock bike. The chopper crowd might laugh at you as you ride on by, since you're so uncool, while they sit in their garage with a beer in one hand and a socket wrench in the other, their bike up on cinder blocks waiting to be "further customized" (which is a fancy way of saying fixed). But at least you'll get from point A to point B, and you'll enjoy the ride just fine, even if the chopper guy could ride circles around you when his machine is having a good day.

Anyway, I can empathize with your frustration. It can be really daunting to try to figure out which manufacturer of essentially the same card is offering the best feature set for the dollar. With so many choices, the specs all seem to blend together. Best advice I can offer is decide on a budget, and use that number to narrow the choices. From there, lay out all the spec sheets, side by side, and then in each category, circle the highest number. Whichever one has the most circles is most likely the one to get. Read the reviews on that one, and if it sounds like a winner, go for it.

And of course, read up on what the numbers actually mean, if you don't already know. Don't just do the circlings without at some basic understanding of what it all means.

Wow, thanks for all the help guys! I'm going to try that... although I'd pretty much have to do it all from the same site since each sight givessome different specs on things. Well, nevermind I'll ggive that idea a try and see what I can find out.

To tell you the truth, I was just gonna say screw it and go for an 8800 card... it costs a bit more but then I now I'll be in the clear... Oh...

And I don't remember seeing a lot of 8600 mentioning the cooling system. Not to say that it's not there but they don't really talk much about it.

bump... sorry, but most of the cards I'm looking at only say Windows Vista on them. I'm pretty sure there's an XP driver, but I'm not that sure. These do work for XP I'm guessing though right?