differences betw Radeon 8500 DV and 7500?

[BartholomewHigglebottoms]

the only ones I notice are that the 8500 has firewire ports and the 7500 doesn't, and that the 8500 operates at a lower clock speed than the cheaper 7500.

Does that even come close to justifying the almost $200 disparity betw the two cards?

 

[LuDaCriS66]

Radeon 7500 AIW review

That should explain it.. check out the second page.. entitled "Card Comparison"

 

[BartholomewHigglebottoms]

I see...so better DirectX, more pipelines, and improved T and L.

Do you personally think that's worth the extra money? Much may be riding on your answer; namely, my extra money!

 

[LuDaCriS66]

Depends on what you're mainly using the card for. If you need the extra power for games then get the 8500dv. Otherwise.. just go for the 7500. Personally, I'd go with a separate video card and a tv tuner card.

 

[BartholomewHigglebottoms]

I plan to buy a new system for vid editing, so that's mainly why I'm looking into the Radeon. The 8500 may not be a good choice over the 7500 if the 8500 has a TV tuner that generates alot of heat because I plan to have RAID in the system.

I wouldn't mind your recommendations/specs for a vid editing system that won't break the bank. I would like to have dual monitors, and of course RAID. Would I need to go with dual processors as well? I'd prefer to use AMD.

I've been tearing my hair out over this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rand]

Remember the AIW R7500 lacks the two IEEE194 FireWire ports that the AIW R8500DV has, so if you need the Firewire capabilities you may want to go with the AIW 8500DV.

ATi's FAQ on the AIW R7500 lists the differences

 

[rbV5]

<< I would like to have dual monitors, >>



Also, the AIW series cards are "dual display" cards not "dual head" cards like their respective cousins the 7500 and 8500. They support 1 Monitor plus 1 TV/VCR. If you need digital capture, the DV Wonder firewire capture card could be added to an AIW 7500 and still be $100 cheaper than an 8500dv (I may go that route).

The extra heat generated by the 8500's new tuner chip should not be a concern at all with proper case cooling, I believe it was more of a concern on the PCB itself in respect to the components on the card, ATI likely felt that faster/hotter ram chips such that ship with the retail 8500 coupled with the extra heat generated by the tuner chip all cramed onto the same PCB could affect the stability of the card at the expense of a few FPS, so they added slower/cooler ram.

I just installed my AIW 7500 yesterday along with a major system upgrade(my rig specs are updated). Still installing components/software, but I must say I'm impressed with the results so far.

 

[BartholomewHigglebottoms]

That's very astute of you to note that about the dual display, thanks! Does this mean that for me to have true dual head, I'll have to go with something like the G550? Unfortunately, it doesn't have capture capability. What are my options? Hmm, I was hoping Radeon would serve all my needs.

 

[BartholomewHigglebottoms]

rbv5, just looked at your rig profile. Would you do anything differently in putting a system together if you had to start from scratch? DP for instance?

 

[rbV5]

You could use a secondary PCI card, but there are some gotcha's with AIW cards. When I've used a secondary card with my AIW's, it disables video-in functions while the secondary card is enabled. Not really a bg deal unless you want to edit video AND capture video at the same time, or if you want to watch TV on your PC while the secondary card is enabled. There are other issues concerning 3D acceleration on your secondary display as well.

nView looks very promising to me, if nVidia can work out the wrinkles with Personal Cinema, you could have true dual head AND great multimedia features, but they have a lot of wrinkles to work out there, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Another option is to simply add a Tv wonder or Hauppage card to a dual head card, but you'll have to give up some major functionality going that route, If you don't need or use the extra features of the Rage Theater Chip, might be the way to go.

 

[BartholomewHigglebottoms]

Well, this presents a conundrum of sorts. I'm puzzled why there isn't already an established solution to a problem alot of video editing hobbyists must be facing. Purchasing another vid card to go with an AIW is unattractive from a cost standpoint, particularly if 3D issues will be entering the mix (I plan on using 3D Studio Max down the road). Ideally, I'd like to get my hands on the Matrox RT2500 capture card in the future, and so would prefer to keep my costs down at this point while being able to do some novice to intermediate level capturing such as the kind AIW's allow for.

TV Wonder and a dual head card without the vid capture and editing of Rage Theatre is not really an option for me since I'm after a very stable setup that'll allow for vid editing, heavy Photoshop, and OpenGL support (for 3D Studio Max) using dual head. Picky lil' ah heck, ain't I?