Reviews for XFX GeForce 8500GT Graphics Card

Best for HTPC or Multi-Monitor Needs, Not Gaming

Strengths: 1) DirectX 10 Support 2) Fan is reasonably quiet 3) Black PCB 4) PureVideo HD Support

Weakness: 1) Cannot play modern games, forget any DX10 games 2) Only 1 DVI Port and 1 VGA Port, not 2 DVI

This card is great for HTPC (home theater PC) use because of the HD acceleration and the reasonably quiet fan. It is also a great way to add a second monitor. However, NVIDIA graphics cards are known for gaming, and this low-end version simply cannot make the cut. It is not fast enough to play any DX10 game that will come out, and DX9 gaming is okay at best. Even the old 6600GT can beat this card in some games. For the price, it can be a great HTPC add-in, but I strongly discourage anyone from buying this for gaming. In the 8-series, gamers will need at least an 8600gt, and for DX10, a card that will be released in the future as all cards on the market right now cannot do DX10 reasonably well (even the 8800gtx has trouble, but this may be a driver issue).

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Decent Video Card

Strengths: DirectX10 Support, DVI, quiet, PCI Express

Weakness: Not that fast. Geforce Name (8500) is Misleading

The number 8500 of this model was used by ATI 6 years ago when they had their 7500 and 8500 lines of video cards. Nvidia should be creative enough to come up with something new.

This card is not that fast. I have an ATI x800 GTO and the speed is about the same as this card. This card gets a 5.1 Vista score. The x800 GTO gets a 5.2 Vista score.

The card supports DirectX10 but since I don't game, I can't really comment on that.

The card is not loud, but some people reported that it overheats. Again, since I don't game, I don't think it'll ever overheat on me.

Overall, this card is not really an upgrade for me. However, I do believe this card has a good price/performance ratio.

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Great for the price

Strengths: Cheap, DirectX 10 support

Weakness: Only one DVI port

The card was very cheap compared to other 8x series graphic cards. Runs a little hot. Only one DVI port. Did not read the description carefully when I bought. It said dual-link DVI on the manufacturers web site which I thought meant 2 DVI ports. Not sure what dual-link DVI means. Other than that it works good for me.

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GeForce 8500 GT

Strengths: 256MB, 800MHz, HDTV, DX10

Weakness: not for high end games

Got for it my friend's PC to use with Vista so no system memory is shared for the GPU. Its been a perfect choice, he can play games with medium to high settings but nothing too hardcore. But this bad boy works great with Vista. Its a fine XFX product.

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GeForce 8500 GT Video Card (256MB, PCI Express x16,...

Strengths: s-video

Weakness: heard it runs pretty hot ... but i bought a vantec cooler placed on the pci right under the gfx card

I would recommend this product. The price for it right now is TERRIFIC ! the graphic card itself looks really nice and I had no problems installing it onto the motherboard or installing it onto the computer.

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No BIG difference...

Strengths: Cheap + DX10 Support

Weakness: Not a top range gaming card

I tested 3 cards on two setups with 3DMark05.

PC1: Intel E6400 Dual Core (2 x 2.13), 1GB533
PC2: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, 1GB533

Fresh setups and no other hardware changes were made during testing.
Both PCs gave approx the same scores.

Scores:
6600GT (256MB) = 3700
7300GT (256MB)= 3500
8500GT (512MB)= 3900

As one can see from the scores, there is not a big leap in performance.

This is a good all rounder card.
But I would not recommend it to a high end gamer.

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Neat Card

Strengths: Full HD decode, DX10 support, sexy black PCB

Weakness: No dual DVI outputs (would've been nice), 3D gaming performance is worse than last generation parts

XFX is pretty much one of the top three graphics card brands (together with BFG and eVGA). There's a fair bit to like about it; the unique black PCB and colored DVI port (though I sure wish they would've included two), DX10 support and especially full HD 1080p decode acceleration. Despite the lackluster game performance of the 8500GT and 8600GT compared to previous generation parts (eg. 7600GT), it is an outstanding HTPC card, which is exactly what I purchased it for.

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Nice card, but not for gamers

Strengths: Price, DirectX 10, HD playback

Weakness: Can't play games in hi-res

I didn't buy this card for gaming, so I was not disappointed. I bought it to replace a GeForce 7300GS that was not handling my dual monitor setup very well. This card did the job perfectly, and at a price that nothing else can beat at the time. Also, when I upgrade to Vista, I know this card will support it and DirectX 10 just fine. I did try to play Transformers on here at 1920x1200 (wishful thinking), but had to turn down the settings because gameplay was affected by the slow framerates. As far as HD, I tried a few movies and it handled them just fine.
If you want a simple and cheap card for normal use or HTPC that supports DX10, this card is great. But if you're looking for a good gaming card, you should look elsewhere.

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Not a gaming Card!!!

Strengths: DX10, great for Budget Vista PC.

Weakness: no hardcore gaming, speed, dual DVI.

This is not a gaming GPU, specs along should tell you. This cheap GPU is for kids, or regular workstations. You can easily run Vista Ultimate with the help of this card. DX10 support really is good for future gaming, you won't be playing card games in DX10 anytime soon.

You can do Dual LCD, but one is regular VGA port, use the DVI connector. Supports SLI, but still isn't going to make your gaming world faster.

4 out of 5 does what it's meant to do.

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Great Graphic card that supports DX10

Strengths: Small but powerful, support DX10 well.

Weakness: Not for overclocker. only has 256MB and supports DDR2

this is a good card for its price comes from the geforce series 8 and it had DX10 its a great card if your looking to just play games with the dvi-i and vga and s-video you can use with any monitor also saves you a couple hundred bucks from the 8800GT,GTS,GTX whis cost 200-700 dollars

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XFX GeForce 8500-GT

Strengths: Low cost for a basic card.

Weakness: None found.

This card was purchased to free up a high end card "on loan" in my wife's computer. For the applications used, this card provides adequate performance an a reasonable price point. There are no expectations to use it for any game play, so I consider this purchase a good value.

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Great card for everyday use.

I am building a HTPC based windows 2003 server with this card, giving me plenty of power and speed for movie and low end gaming.

strong recommended to non-gamers like me.

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