I just played Half Life 2 demo, and I was completely amazed. I didn't quite play w/ full settings, but they were fairly high with many settings on highest. The resolution was 1024x768 & AA/AF were at x2 each. Excellent frame rate. It would hang when new sounds would load, but that is because I do not have a sound card installed. I also was playing with the card OC'ed, which makes a huge difference. It appears I underestimated this video card.

I think I can play Half Life 2 on all full settings once I do the following tweaks. I intend to tweak my system further by replacing my stock 2.8 GHz Celeron with a 3.06 GHz P4 HT if I can find a decent price on one. Also intend to try to upgrade RAM from 1GB to 2GB, and of course get my sound card in the mail and install it at long last. I'm going to upgrade the PSU and install some internal cooling to keep everything regulated. Then at long last, I am going to OC the GPU, CPU, & RAM for incredible PCI performance previously not thought attainable.

There's no telling what I can tackle after that, definitely Oblivion. I may take on Crysis just to see what I can do, I'll let you all know how it goes, just don't expect stellar performance. I thought the PCI bus would bottleneck the daylights out of the 8500 GT, but I am getting incredible performance regardless. This card is the missing link in the evolution of PCI gaming. PCI-e users thumb their nose at it, but for us PCI guys, it is a boon to say the least.

To the guy who got the 6200, congrats, enjoy your card and let us know how it performs.

Hey teklord, thats great. I will download the demo myself and see how it runs with my 2400 hd pro card with a PIII 600MHZ.
I am about to test out Unreal Tournment 3 in a few mins and i will let you guys know how it runs, if it runs at all lol.

Wow, i've never seen a Video Card manufacturer throw in some ram XD

Half Life 2 should run on my PC - it meets all specs - but my video card isn't recommended for the recommended settings =(

Well, i'm gonna probably find the X1550 PRO or the HD 2400 PRO when i have the time since the 8500 GT won't run some games i would probably game with occassionally [even though its powerful, its nto supported by some]

You are saying the 8500 GT can't run certain games, but the X1550 and HD 2400 Pro can? also whats NTO supported?

Little confused here..........

I have my eye on Unreal Tournament 2004, UT III looks too high res for my setup. Can You Run It? website says my PC can run UT III, but looking at screenies, I'm sure the FPS would be less than stellar. UT 2004 has some killer mods as well. I wouldn't get your hopes too high General, start at low settings and work your way up from there on HL2 demo.

To TL93: You said the 8500 GT wouldn't run some games, but that doesn't make sense why nVidia would make a video card that is not backward compatible with some previously released games. I have never heard of any card not running some games, unless they are beyond the capabilities of the card, Crysis for example.

Heh...I'm sure when TL93 said "nto supported" he means "not supported", just mistyped it.

There's no such thing as a video card being supported by games...
The only thing that supports a video card is the motherboard interface slot.

TL93, I'm pretty sure the games you're talking about will run fine on the 8500GT, and are certainly not titles that are exclusive to the X1550 or HD2400.

Just because a game does not list a certain video card on its box doesn't mean it won't work.

FWIW, I ran 3dmark06 on my PCI 6200 card in Vista Ultimate. This is what I got.





I probably will also run CS:S test and maybe lost coast.

I got 17.7 fps with Doom 3 sometimes 30 FPS, with the Pny 6200 Nvidia Geforce 256mb pci card.


I am getting Pny to replace card so cannot try the Quake 4 game yet.

Hi teklord, sorry to take a while to get back to you. I get the same results in 3dmark03, however Rivatuner says it's got 256Mb. I couldn't find an entry for memory in Powerstrip.

My gut feeling is that 3dmark03 is probably wrong and it's 256Mb as advertised. troubl is you cannot see the chips as the heatsink is in the way.

BTW what score did you get with 3dmark03 ?

Thx for reply jives11. My 3DMark03 score was 5045 3DMarks and that is without my sound card which still isn't here in the mail yet. For the test, I also OC'ed my 8500 GT to Core - 545 and Memory - 450, which is the most I can do with my current setup without seeing artifacts.

I think you are right about it only being 256Mb, I see it being 512Mb in several applications, but many applications state it is PCI-E bus type and it obviously isn't.

There is a list of upgrades I want to do to this PC, so future 3DMark03 tests should be much better. I hope to never have to go back to any lesser PCI card while I use this PC as I am accustomed to it's performance level. Looking at the OP's scores in 3DMark06, I don't know how he can live with that but there is a lot he can do to improve his system as well. I'm not criticizing his rig, but any game past circa 2002 must be a slide show for him and having used Integrated Graphics for a while, I know that is frustrating.

That's a very good score - I have yet to pass the 5000 score. Bare in mind though that the OP's score is 3dmark06 which is a much much tougher set of tests and will give a lower score for everyone. I'll try that test too. I can only use the machine in question when my son is not using it for HL2: garys mod .

Q: What settings do you have in the nVidia Control panel (Appearance, performance or let the app decide). I think the new nVidia control screens are a severe step backward. The old control which supported OC'ing was much better.

jives11, I scored 1296 in 3DMark06. I OC'ed my GPU again for the test. I really don't like to use anything past 3DMark03 because this rig isn't what 3DMark06 is looking for(Core 2 Duo, 8800 GT PCI-E, etc.), but you guys are using it so I thought I would give it a shot. The OP is welcome to use whatever setup he wants, I was merely frustrated for him that his scores were a little low. Me personally, I would stick some low cost upgrades in there to tide him over until his next PC, that's what I'm doing with mine here.

A: As for nVidia Control Panel, I have it set to "Let the 3D application decide" with the slider all the way to the right on Quality. I'm using driver version 169.21, which is the latest non-beta version I could find on the nVidia website. I don't use nVidia Control Panel to OC, although it is possible with mine because I have nTune installed as well (not sure if it is the nTune or the regular Control Panel allowing me to OC). I use ATi Tool because it is far more precise than the nVidia product and much more user friendly over all.

Thanks teklord - I agree that 3dmark03 is a better test rig for these platforms.

I have never got nTune to work. It always barfs that I don't have an nVidia motherboard - which seems to limit it's use somewhat. it also looks half finished. I'd like to get it to work because it has some kind of OC optimiser that you leave running and it's supposed to OC's in an iterative way .

I'll try your OC settings in rivatuner or powerstrip and post my results. Are you monitoring the GPU temperature ? I wonder how hot it got. I've seen 58 degrees via speedfan after it's been left at a gaming pause screen for a long time

nTune is only supposed to work with nVidia mobo's either they have integrated nVidia GPU's or the are SLI compatible, something along those lines. It will never work for you unless your mobo came with the nVidia components factory installed.

I'm monitoring my GPU temperature with GPU-Z, I highly recommend it (got the idea to use it from the OP's screenshots above). It gets to 80 degrees Celsius plus, so I always turn off OC settings upon exiting any game I play. I have no additional internal cooling system other than the factory install fan on the CPU, so that obviously is a top priority for me.

80 degrees is pretty hot. I never let my CPU get above 65.

perhaps a PCI cooler close to the card ?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati....asp?CatId=804

Awesome tip jives11. I don't have a PCI slot to spare(I only have three and the GPU takes up 2 of those, while my about to arrive sound card takes one), but I have a slot for an AGP connection which was left out at the factory, so I can use one of those slot fans. You would think that massive heat sink on the 8500 GT would defuse the heat better. I've felt it after use, and it gets pretty hot.

teklord - do you only have the CPU fan + the PSU fan ? Do you have a space for a case fan ? That would be the best "bang for buck" cooling method. Even if there is not fan pins on the motherboard, you can always chain it from a spare MOLEX connector.

If your GPU is hitting 80 degrees I think I'd be a bit concerned about how hot my hard disk was getting. Every hard drive I have seen has an internal temperature gauge and speedfan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.phpis great for finding out how hot the drive are, summarising all the S.M.A.R.T data and even has the ability to compare your readings online with the global averages for that drive model. It's a really outstanding piece of shareware even if you don't use it to modify fan speeds. I try and keep my drives under the average which is around 35 degrees C. I lost a couple of drives in another PC and I think I shortened their lives by running them too hot. I also found out that taking the side panel off heated up the hard drives !!!! because the airflow was no longer drawing cooler air across the disks, it was short cutting in from the side. The ideal config is cool air entering the case at the lower front, making an 'S' shape and exiting at the top or mid rear.

Some of those PCI coolers , the double fan ones, use the PCI slot to provide extra support. This is a mechanical rather than electrical connection. You might find you could cut the tab to engage with the AGP slot.

I think the Thermaltake A2426 Cyclo PCI Slot Fan (Blue LED) looks good, I just ordered one myself so my card will have fans above and below.

If you want a standard blower type like the black one in the link, I have a spare you can have , PM me.

Another way of solving your lack of slots would be a fan that blows across all the cards like this one

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...=29335&doy=9m5

It's a bit hard to see how it fits, but basically it is perpendicular to the PCI cards and blows down across them i.e through the gaps between the cards. The mounting plate is held in place by the same screws which also hold the PCI cards or blanking plates in place. Of course it assumes you have some space between the top edge (closest the case side panel) of the cards and the side panel. Hope that makes sense !?

Hi Teklord and Jives11,

I think you'd better replace passive cooling by an active one like the Zalman VF700-CU.

I've seen it on a french blog. Or maybe you can find one which let you use only one PCI slot, contrary to the passive cooling?

Good luck

thanks - a nice piece of kit. I think a problem may be that the passive cooler is seated on both the GPU and the memory from what I can see . Now the passive heatsink has a square cut out badge screwed on and perhaps it would be possible to fit a fan to the existing heatsink ?

I didn't see that before so I wonder if the memory on the GPU needs to be cool or not. I don't think so, but if you'right, the wings of the cooler can do that, like on the 8500GT PCI-E which is the same (but only one slot PCI!!) that ours dear card.


Both (heatsink+ventilator) will take 3 PCI slots! But why not

If I have enough times, I will change my heatsink by a ventilator (distance between hole of fixation : 80, 62 or 56 mm) and I'll make photographs!

Ciao.