New Nvidia Drivers ...

[smoth]

I think everyone should get a 8600 card as soon as they're available. Seem to be really, really good value for average users from what I've read.

I have one, what do you need to know about the model?

[genblood]

smoth

genblood in case you did not get the memo, those of us with 8000 series have HORRID drivers

On the 8000 series drivers for Vista is very bad, the same goes for
WinXP too ... I think Ati drivers are improving every new release.
Nvidia needs to release monthly or every other month with tweekies
and improvements to their drivers.

I have a few pcs in my home network. Most have Nvidia cards, some with
ATI ... still prefer ATI for windows system. An Nvidia for linux systems.

[Caydr]

I think everyone should get a 8600 card as soon as they're available. Seem to be really, really good value for average users from what I've read.

I have one, what do you need to know about the model?

Nothing. I'm just a geek and a lot of people (even from here) ask for my opinion on hardware stuff... 8600 seems like a very solid candidate for the mainstream user based on what I've read of it so far. It is roughly on par or superior for the fastest single 7xxx geforce cards in many (most?) conditions. For anyone with a little more spending money, I'd highly recommend either:

1) Buying the 8800 GTS 320mb, which can be overclocked to be almost comparable to the much more expensive GTX

2) Waiting for the first R600 cards to come out, and either taking advantage of Nvidia's corresponding price drops, or buying a midrange R600 card instead, if you're an ATI fan.

The 8xxx series is really that huge "cinematic gaming" leap Nvidia promised us with the FX series. For a while I was doubtful we'd have computers which could seriously compete with X360 and PS3 for at least a year or two, but here we are. An 8800 GTS, let alone GTX, blows even the most powerful 7xxx SLi setup out of the water.

For the record, the 8xxx series' drivers are just fine, as long as you don't use Vista. And nobody in their right mind would use Vista for at least another 6-12 months. It's pure rubbish.

[AF]

The lastest nvidia drivers are big boost. The only crashes I get from them are TDR crashes in spring, and their frequency has dropped greatly since the 101.4 drivers, albeit they're still rather nasty when playing Gundam, whcih gives 4-20 minutes of gameplay versus XTA and BA which can do entire games without crashes sometimes.