graphics cards

[qh187]

I'm on a $100 budget for a graphics card. I've seen the Geforce3 Ti200, Radeon 8500 LE, and the Geforce2 Ultra all for around that price...all of them are 64Mb. Which card is better? Also which has more potential when overclocking? Thanks.

 

[Mavrick007]

If you can, go with the GF3 Ti200. This card will overclock very nicely and be faster than the Radeon 8500 Le or GF2 Ultra.

 

[murphy55d]

No doubt the GF3 Ti200.

 

[spanky]

i like the radeon 8500 myself. u could pick up a radeon 8500 (stock oem) from neweggs refurb page for $99 shipped. u gotta be lucky tho, becuz those things fly off the shelf.

 

[Dormant]

OMG GET THE RADEON! The Radeon 8500LE retail box comes with 3.3ns memory... you should be able to get the card Oced to 300core/600ddr. It will trounce the G3 Ti200. The performance difference between an 8500LE and regular 8500 is maybe 5% and if your overclocking its 0%.

 

[Booster]

<< If you can, go with the GF3 Ti200. This card will overclock very nicely and be faster than the Radeon 8500 Le or GF2 Ultra. >>



I second that! The GF3 is a very OCable card, unlike the Radeon which may start acting weird at higher AGP speeds. And the chip itself is hardly any OCable. The GF3 2D is top-notch, so I don't see any reasons why you should get a Radeon instead.

 

[Athlon4all]

The Radeon 8500LE's around $100 I've seen are not ATi brand but third parties that prolly aren't using that high quality ram and plus there is some debate whether the quality on the "Powered by ATi" cards as well, and again, like ppl have said, the Ti200's are amazing overclockers, and you with one can prolly oc it far enough to beat the 8500. So, i'd give the nod to the Ti 200.

<< The GF3 2D is top-notch, so I don't see any reasons why you should get a Radeon instead. >>

Not quite, at least when the Radeon is a Built by ATi.

 

[rbV5]

<< The Radeon 8500LE's around $100 I've seen are not ATi brand but third parties that prolly aren't using that high quality ram >>



FYI, the Radeon 8500LE's listed at $105 at Newegg are shipping with 3.3ns hynix memory and are overclocking very well according to this thread at Rage3D. I'd go with the Radeon, for around $100 its a great deal.

 

[Athlon4all]

<< FYI, the Radeon 8500LE's listed at $105 at Newegg are shipping with 3.3ns hynix memory and are overclocking very well according to this thread at Rage3D. I'd go with the Radeon, for around $100 its a great deal.
>>

Wow, cool!!! In that case, I'd have to change my reccomendation to the 8500LE. As long as you can oc to stock speeds, it should be very competitive with even a oc'ed GF3 Ti 200.

 

[Rand]

I'd go with the Radeon 8500LE, it's generally faster then the Ti200 is a much more well rounded product, with a better feature set.



<< The Radeon 8500LE's around $100 I've seen are not ATi brand but third parties that prolly aren't using that high quality ram and plus there is some debate whether the quality on the "Powered by ATi" cards as well >>



Presntly there are only two third party manufacturers actually making R8500 boards, those being Club3D, and Gigabyte.... with Hercules rumored to start within the next few months. All other third party R8500's are manufactured by ATi to the respective companies specs and re-sold to the third party for branding and re-sale.

Hence the 2D visual quality, and quality of manufacture should be consistent with that of ATi's own cards. I'd be wary of Club3D, but Gigbyte's models seem to be of respectable quality.
From what I've seen the third party vendors typically use 4.0ns, 3.8ns, or 3.6ns DDR SDRAM.

With the exception of Club3D I'd feel quite confident purchasing a R8500LE, and I certainly have no qualms with recommend or selling them.
The R7500 is another matter altogether though, with a number of third parties selling R7500's at much lower clockspeeds then ATi's models, and a few even using SDR SDRAM.

 

[qh187]

yeah I think I'm gonna pick the radeon 8500 because it has a DVI out. I heard there were lots of driver issues though. Is that true? Or has it been fixed?

 

[nortexoid]

i'd go w/ the Radeon too, no questions...it'll perform like a champ, wicked image quality, awesoem DVD hardware assist, etc..

u can probably pick up an OEM radeon 8500 for the same price as the LE, minus the DVI-I to 15-pin VGA dongle tho...if you don't have two CRTs that u're using (or an analog LCD), then no biggie...

 

[qh187]

can anyone tell me what the difference between the 8500 and the 8500LE is? I know that the clock speeds are different. Is everything else the same?

 

[Pabster]

Radeon 8500, hands down. The GF3 Ti200 is no competition. It costs more and simply doesn't perform as well.