No it would not be an improvement. Infact it would be a waste of money with how much the 8600 is priced. The 8600 GTS is 3 generations old, and for the market it competed in it was disappointing at that time. For the same price before Mail-in rebate you can get an HD3850. For the same price after, you can get an HD3650. Both these cards will outperform an 8600 GTS.
The video card market looked pretty locked up by NVIDIA for the first part of this year, with their Geforce 9600GT, 8800GT 512MB, and 8800GTS 512MB keeping the performance and price/performance lead for those looking to spend $125 to $250. At the high end the Geforce 8800GTX 768MB continued its long reign until the dual-GPU AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2 and NVIDIA Geforce 9800GX2 came out.
Then in the middle of June, AMD's Radeon HD 4000-series arrived, walloping the $199 price point with performance that matched or beat NVIDIA's 8800GTS 512MB as well as NVIDIA's top of the line single-GPU 9800GTX. AMD's card runs hotter but seem to be faster most of the time; it's not too much slower when it is slower, and more importantly, it caused NVIDIA to slash 9800GTX prices in response.
NVIDIA fans will find an overclocked 9800GTX or stock-clocked 9800GTX+ should still look decent against a stock-clocked Radeon HD 4850, while the higher-end Radeon HD 4870 more than holds its own against the Geforce GTX260 and GTX280. The Radeon HD 4850 seems to be pretty power-thrifty as a bonus, although current models all ship with a single-slot cooler than runs fairly toasty. That probably won't bother most system builders, but overclockers will want a more beefy cooling solution and small form factor (SFF) builders obviously will need to consider the side effect of such a hot-running card.
For those on a budget the NVIDIA Geforce 8800GTS 512MB isn't much slower than the Radeon HD 4850 or Geforce 9800GTX, depending on the application, and as we have alluded to multiple times, the 8800GT 512MB and 9600GT 512MB (both of which are progressively lower-end in the line-up, and hence progressively cheaper) still perform very well. However, with Radeon HD 4850 prices as low as $149 after rebate, there's almost no reason to go with anything else.
The Visiontek Radeon HD 4850 has a 625mhz core clock, 512MB of memory at 1Ghz on a 256-bit memory bus, and dual dual-link DVI output.
Cost: $189.99 (7/16/2008)
BTW, this is the value card. If you're looking for a better performer, I'd got with the 4870 (which is what I have in my system).
You can get an 8600 GTS for about $60 after rebates online. It would be better than 8400, but not by much. The new ATI HD 4xxx cards are the best for the money at the moment, but you won't find them for $60.
Comments
No it would not be an improvement. Infact it would be a waste of money with how much the 8600 is priced. The 8600 GTS is 3 generations old, and for the market it competed in it was disappointing at that time. For the same price before Mail-in rebate you can get an HD3850. For the same price after, you can get an HD3650. Both these cards will outperform an 8600 GTS.
From Ars Technica:
Video
Visiontek Radeon HD 4850 512MB
The video card market looked pretty locked up by NVIDIA for the first part of this year, with their Geforce 9600GT, 8800GT 512MB, and 8800GTS 512MB keeping the performance and price/performance lead for those looking to spend $125 to $250. At the high end the Geforce 8800GTX 768MB continued its long reign until the dual-GPU AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2 and NVIDIA Geforce 9800GX2 came out.
Then in the middle of June, AMD's Radeon HD 4000-series arrived, walloping the $199 price point with performance that matched or beat NVIDIA's 8800GTS 512MB as well as NVIDIA's top of the line single-GPU 9800GTX. AMD's card runs hotter but seem to be faster most of the time; it's not too much slower when it is slower, and more importantly, it caused NVIDIA to slash 9800GTX prices in response.
NVIDIA fans will find an overclocked 9800GTX or stock-clocked 9800GTX+ should still look decent against a stock-clocked Radeon HD 4850, while the higher-end Radeon HD 4870 more than holds its own against the Geforce GTX260 and GTX280. The Radeon HD 4850 seems to be pretty power-thrifty as a bonus, although current models all ship with a single-slot cooler than runs fairly toasty. That probably won't bother most system builders, but overclockers will want a more beefy cooling solution and small form factor (SFF) builders obviously will need to consider the side effect of such a hot-running card.
For those on a budget the NVIDIA Geforce 8800GTS 512MB isn't much slower than the Radeon HD 4850 or Geforce 9800GTX, depending on the application, and as we have alluded to multiple times, the 8800GT 512MB and 9600GT 512MB (both of which are progressively lower-end in the line-up, and hence progressively cheaper) still perform very well. However, with Radeon HD 4850 prices as low as $149 after rebate, there's almost no reason to go with anything else.
The Visiontek Radeon HD 4850 has a 625mhz core clock, 512MB of memory at 1Ghz on a 256-bit memory bus, and dual dual-link DVI output.
Cost: $189.99 (7/16/2008)
BTW, this is the value card. If you're looking for a better performer, I'd got with the 4870 (which is what I have in my system).
I'll look into those HD cards, I read a review on one of them, (Another card) it said they were mainly for movies and gets poor FPS in-games.
Faclare - LoTR Elendilmir
You can get an 8600 GTS for about $60 after rebates online. It would be better than 8400, but not by much. The new ATI HD 4xxx cards are the best for the money at the moment, but you won't find them for $60.
that is quite good already but if u want a more decent one try the 9xxx+ series