Video Cards: GeForce 8 Series Question

[Stav]

So I've been lurking on the forums for a while and have decided to take the plunge into the world of WoW Multiboxing and have run into a quandary about which of the GeForce 8 series of graphics cards to get.

From what I can gather from digging through posts the 8800 is King. I've also seen folks who have had success running 4-5 instances with the 8600's and 8400's.

So here is the question, if the system being built is solely aimed at quad boxing WoW with a single monitor, single window visible at a time is the performance increase worth the extra cash, or is an 8600 or 8400 adequate as long as I am not trying to max out graphic settings on the primary window?

For comparison I'm presently running a single instance of WoW on an aging Radeon X1650.

Thanks,
-Stav

[Diamndzngunz]

I have a 8600 Quad Boxing. Works fine.. I even think the graphics are set high.

[Wilbur]

With the Graphics card, its advisable to go as High as you can afford. Although obviously, CPU, RAM and Motherboard are all something you should splash out on as well.

[Xzin]

Just FYI, 8400s are significantly underpowered compared to 8600s.

[Kyudo]

My setup:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz
4 Mb Ram
Vista 32
Nvididea GeForce 8600 GT
One 24" Monitor

I run 5 Wow's without major problems, with gfx on high on the main screen and mainly low on the minion screens. Could be better at around 25-30fps on all screens when out and about and around 15fps in cities, but it's playable.

I'll most likely look to upgrade to a nice 8800 card after the prices come down to below £100.

If in doubt, set up a few trial accounts and see what the performance is like.

[Skuggomann]

4 Mb Ram


/sarcasm on
OMG GODLIKE! XD

[Stav]

Thanks for the replies, looks like I'll have to mull over the advantages the 8800 GT presents over the 8600 GT and whether or not it's worth the extra $100-$150.

-Stav

[marvein]

Thanks for the replies, looks like I'll have to mull over the advantages the 8800 GT presents over the 8600 GT and whether or not it's worth the extra $100-$150.

-Stav

btw since you are getting 32bit vista you wont be able to see all 4gigs of ram, only 3 will be usable by windows. If you dont plan to ever play any of the other newer fps type games then the 8600 will be ok for you. but I personally love my 8800s, have 3 of them in various PCs the GTX version however is not worth the upgrade at all from a regular.

[Xzin]

I would agree with that. The 8800 GTX is great if you want to spend the money for marginal gains. If you want a solid card, consider a regular 8800 or even a 8600. They will do 80% of the work for something like 50% of the cost.

[Kyudo]

4 Mb Ram


/sarcasm on
OMG GODLIKE! XD

/dunce hat on

oops

[Steven88]

I was able to get 2 8600 GTS SLI cards for less then the cost of 1 8800.

I have not had a chance to "tinker" with the 8800 so i can not speak to how well it performs, however my two 8600 cards running in SLI are just amazing. I stay at a constant 60 FPS even when in major cities with all the graphics settings maxed out and the highest resolution.

There can be issues when trying to run dual monitors with SLI, but you can always disable the SLI feature when multi boxing.

If you are unsure of the 8800 series, I would really consider the 8600 either solo or in SLI.

Just my 2 cents worth.