Posted to Video Cards 2008-12-09
Go ahead, drool over the BFG NVIDIA 8500 GTwith 1 gig of RAM on board. Uh, on second thought, maybe not over it, as moisture and electronics don't usually jive too well. However, I won't tell anyone because I am right there with you. That's right ladies and gents of the PC world, the video cards with 1 gig of RAM are here and who better than NVIDIA to bring it to the table? Built with Vista in mind, it functions flawlessly with the new Windows Aero 3D graphical user interface. Also, it is the first graphics card to be released to be built with the DirectX GPU. Utilizing the NVIDIA SLI Technology, for the hardcore PC Gamer, you can stack this card with another SLI compatible card to double the graphical processing power of your PC. For the HD lovers out there, it is 100% compatible with Blue-Ray and HD DVD formats, decoding and processing brilliantly to present crystal clear picture, color and scaling quality.
ValueCall me biased if you want, but for years I have always trusted NVIDIA. From the late 90's and on, when there was always the possibility of having compatibility issues with certain 3D PC games and video cards, the NVIDIA never failed me. As the gaming market dictates more and more powerful cards, NVIDIA continues to put out a product that is reliable and willing to meet the challenge. Value in a video card is really dependent on how you intend to use it. I give the 8500 1gb a good rating though because you can pick this card up for around $120 and for the price, it's going to perform great and not limit your PC Game selection too much and almost all your PC applications will run seamlessly. Now sure, if you're looking to play extremely high end 3D games (Crysis or Fallout 3, for example) you might need to invest a little more. But overall, for the money, this card would certainly survive the next 12-18 months before the next upgrade. And if you can do that for less than $150 in the video card market, you're doing great! PerformanceThere were a lot of firsts for this card, which is why it gets such a great rating. Engineered specifically for Vista (though no worries XP users, it will work perfectly fine for you as well) and uses the first DirectX10 GPU beneficial to the PC gamer masses. The HD compatibility is great as it is the first video card to process the H.264 decoding completely, giving you the full experience that is high definition. And for the gamer who doesn't want or can't afford to drop $600 for a high-end card, taking advantage of the SLI capability of this card is a great advantage. Even if you buy two of these cards you will still be at half the cost of the newer, high end cards but have twice the processing power for your games. Treasure is all in the eye of the beholder. However, given that there are cards out now with much greater graphical processing ability, this one does fall a little short. For instance, the BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 OCX 1GB PCIe 2.0 is by far and away superior, but it's also $600 and really unnecessary for the average gamer and certainly the average PC user. But I put this in my review because it's important to realize that if you're running some strenuous graphical apps or you like to have the newest games out on the market, you will probably need to look for a more powerful card. At this point for instance, most brand new PC games recommend anywhere between an 8600 to 8800 NVIDIA. Now of course, this card will meet minimum requirements, but you might have to turn down some of the graphics options in order to prevent lagging and in 6 months, this card might not hold up to the newer requirements games might have. SummaryLook, here's the deal, this is an excellent card if you're a general to slightly above average computer user. The BFG NVIDIA 8500 GT with 1 gig of RAM makes a great addition to your system to process current generation games, general picture editing or HD movie viewing. The price is phenomenal versus comparably priced cards considering all the options. High end users, unless you're taking advantage of the two cards with SLI, you will want to steer clear, your price range is going to be at least $100 - $200 more. Pros
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