ATI Radeon LE (Low End?!)

[Taz4158]

That's more in line. What driver are you using?

 

[AmbitV]

the 7072...is that the best?

 

[oldfart]

vman, thanks for running the test. This ***CONFIRMS*** (heh, I cant get that out of my system) that the LE has HyperZ disabled by default in D3D, but enabled in OpenGL. So, it looks like if you turn D3D HyperZ on, up the clock speed a few notches, you have a "normal" 32 DDR for less than $100.

 

[Taz4158]

It's the one I prefer right now. The 3DMARK scores are lower but real world performance is better. Did you rename or delete the ATIGART.EXE file? Also disable ATIPOLAB from your startup menu by running msconfig and get rid of all ATI references from your windows/run, run once etc. section of the registry.

 

[Merc7]

I recently purchased one of these cards from Newegg. I got mine a few weeks ago when the price was $120 or so. Mine came with just a heatsink, as many of you described, but it doesn't have an LE sticker on the side, so i'm not sure if it's actually an LE. It was clocked at 148/148, but I was able to raise that to 190/190 no prob. I had it installed for a while and then decided to get the 64 meg version of the card since I wanted the VIVO functionality. I bought a retail Radeon 64 VIVO from buy.com that I received a couple days ago. I did run some benchmarks in Q3 when I had the 32 meg card installed. Here they are compared to my new 64meg card:

Res: 1024x768 (32-bit everything)

OEM 32DDR
Clock (166/166) FPS - 67.2
Clock (183/183) FPS - 71.4
Clock (190/190) FPS - 73.5

Retail 64DDR
Clock (default 183/183) FPS - 71.9
Clock (190/190) FPS - 73.2

As you can see there is little difference, and the 32meg DDR actually out-performed my 64meg DDR by a small margin for some reason. I had both card using the same registry settings, and the same D3D and OpenGL settings in case you're wondering. Just though i'd let you guys know about this.

 

[oldfart]

Thanks Merc. With everyones help, I think we know what these cards are.

32 meg 6ns DDR
clocked at 148/148, but can easily go well above that
larger, but passive HS
HyperZ disabled in D3D only, but can be enabled via registry
Very Cheap

When above changes are made, runs as well as a "normal" 32 DDR.

 

[AmbitV]

well worth the money...factoring in the quality of the picture and the dvd hardware, this seems way better than my old GeforceMX so far

 

[Taz4158]

Thanks for all the research guys!

 

[Moz]

Excellent work, now I can rest a little easier .

 

[Engineer]

Thanks oldfart for you assistance in helping me test the card with the correct registry settings....I've been monitoring your posting over at Rage3D and I guess there is always someone who tries to "p!ss" on the parade. Again, thanks to everyone who posted here with information that helped.

 

[oldfart]

Yeah, that's the way it is I guess. Its frustrating when you are trying to do something to help out your fellow "Geeks" for lack of a better term, and some dimwit who has not clue in the world is in there trying to muck things up. I think as a team here at Anandtech, we did a nice job clearing up the confusion on these cards. I'd say for the most part, people who bought them now feel better about their purchase. In fact, they got a real bargain on a nice card.

 

[Aso]

My LE Radeon from newegg is giving my 69.2 fps in quake3 timedemo 1. This is a win2k box with a 550 @ 733 intel chip. I want to thank oldfart and engineer for all the work they have done looking into these cards. I havent done the registry tweaks because I cant find where they are located. Must be in a different place for 2k

jason

 

[oldfart]

Go to this LINK. Win2K registry settings are more complex due to profile locations. That page will have links to GUI based "tweakers" that will make the entries for you. If you get this setup, could you check HyperZ D3D functionality as described in this thread and post the results? BTW, are you still running @ 148 or did you up the clock speed?

 

[OldPro]

FWIW, here's a discussion on a German site with (estimated) comparisons. Link is translated from original German via Lycos.

Here, I hope

Make sure you read the update at the end, it appears they now think it may have 128 bit memory path. Hopefully some of you with more experience than I have can make better sense of these numbers.

 

[BlvdKing]

I think it's funny how DDR = Southern German Broadcasting Co.

 

[oldfart]

Is that what that was? I could not figure out WTF they were talking about!

 

[merlocka]

based on the benchmark data, i highly doubt the memory bus was reduced to 64bit. it wouldn't add up.

 

[collymor]

According to the review on the chinese website, the LE has won their first editor's choice award for the year! All the benchmarks shows that it soundly whups the MX on all levels. All said, I think I'm gonna plunk my moola down for this card over the MX any day.

 

[rpzero]

For comparison, I'm posting my benchmark scores for Quake 3 using my All in Wonder Radeon. My systems specs are P3 1 GHz, BE6 II ver. 2.0, 128 MB RAM, IBM 45 GB ATA100 HD.

All tests were run on the High Quality setting.

At default 166/166
800x600: 104.8
1024x768: 72.1
1280x1024: 46.2
1600x1200: 32.7

overclocked to 180/180
800x600: 112.2
1024x768: 79.0
1280x1024: 50.8
1600x1200: 35.9


So it seems the LE's performance isn't that much of a difference than a regular Radeon, I guess in this case in comparison to the Radeon AIW. But consider the price! The AIW is about $250 while the LE is $92.99!

 

[Yknot]

BlvdKing: "I think it's funny how DDR = Southern German Broadcasting Co" [not]

We're confused enough with that auto-translator: What a hoot!!

"Southern German" is "Sud-Deutsche", as a check on the original text confirms: those translations refer to SDR, not DDR, memories.

An equally silly translation is DDR -> GDR: 'presume this is "Deutsche Democratik Republik" [sp?] -> German Democratic Republic.

The auto-translator needs a Mode-setting for GeekSpeak to suppress acronym alterations.

 

[Auric]

So if you want an all-around superior card except for lacking TV-Out capabilities then this is much better than a Geforce 2 MX? How does it do in Win00? I think it is almost time to buy... but if the MX and Radeon are $90 now, how much will they be next month when the latest fab gear arrives?

 

[hans007]

they wont go that low. maybe $60 at the lowest, besides if the nv20 comes out its not necessarily gonna lower prices, since why would nvidia want to lower it, if they are controlling every tier of the market. The radeon is good, in win2k its about 85% the speed of win98. 90% or so if you can get the special drivers (that are OPEN GL optimized supposedly). For me the specials crashed and wouldn't work with dvds, so retails for me.

 

[bluemax]

If only they had a VIVO version for a few bucks more.

 

[mikeinfwa]

DDR used to refer to the former East Germany.

mike

 

[Auric]

Sanku for ze info hans007. But with the lower performance in Win00, will the LE still beat an MX? Plus the MX has the possibility of VIVO. I need at least 1024x768 32bit with all the eye candy on for every game in Win00 for an upgrade to be useful. You make that projected 33% drop in price seem trivial At $60 I would definitely be willing to forgo VIVO and snap one up to at least try it out.