OPINIONS: 8500 vs Ti200

[DraculR]

As stated this is between the ATi Radeon 8500 and the GeForce3 Ti200.

Just like to get everyone opinions on which is better for Gaming and misc. 2D things like watching DVD's. So basically, if you had he option of getting one of these cards which would it be? I know there are many discussions about these cards, but it would be nice to get everyone's opinion in the one place. Driver issues do count, as ATi's are currently still can't touch the nVidia equivilant.

Post away chums =)

 

[damocles]

If driver issues werent to be considered, then I would choose the 8500 without hesitation. It is faster than the Ti 200 and has some funky features (Smooth Vision, Truform). With subsequent driver releases it also has considerable room to improve

The Radeon 8500 is at least as good as the best Ti 200 in regards to 2D, and has a better feature set than most, including excellent DVD playback

 

[spanky]

radeon.


btw, can u guys actually see that i made the period in bold?

 

[Muadib]

I've only had my 8500 for about a week, thanks to Dell, but so far I'm loving it. Wolfenstien looks great, although Ive only played it once, because I'm hooked on Civ3. I'm using the 3276 w2k drivers, about to try the 3286 beta.

 

[SamuraiSludge]

I'd have to give the slight edge to NVidia on this one

In terms of features, the Radeon has the definite edge over NVidia. Features like HyperZ, Truform, and SmoothVision are quite innovative for current video card technology , and some of these features will most likely be adopted by NVidia at some point in the near future.

But where ATi and the Radeon lose points with me is in the areas of reliability and drivers. If ATi can produce effective, reliable drivers every few weeks (as they have been promising to do), then I have no doubt that the Radeon could overtake the Ti200/Ti500s in terms of price/performance.

But as it stands right now, I would rather have a Ti200/Ti500 over the Radeon 8500.

 

[Muadib]

Sigh, I just tried the 3286 drivers, and I'm sad to say they suck. I couldn't do anything, and I do mean anything. I got some error no matter what I tried running. It wouldn't even shutdown.

I would rather have a Ti200/Ti500 over the Radeon 8500.
Well, I half agree with you, because I would rather have a Ti500 too. However given that the Ti500 was twice the price, but not twice the proformance, I went with the 8500. The 8500 blows away the Ti200 IMO.

 

[MrGrim]

Ti200.

 

[tazdevl]

<< Sigh, I just tried the 3286 drivers, and I'm sad to say they suck. I couldn't do anything, and I do mean anything. I got some error no matter what I tried running. It wouldn't even shutdown.

I would rather have a Ti200/Ti500 over the Radeon 8500.
Well, I half agree with you, because I would rather have a Ti500 too. However given that the Ti500 was twice the price, but not twice the proformance, I went with the 8500. The 8500 blows away the Ti200 IMO. >>



Mua, sounds like an idiotic question, but did you do a fresh format and install before you switched cards? Most folks that go that route ended up with zero or a couple minor problems. I have had zero problems on XP Pro. Did a fresh install. Going through and picking out registry keys doesn't seem to help, there's always a stray floating around to mess things up.

-Might also want to try downloading the latest 4in1 drivers that just came out yesterday if you haven't already. There's an updated AGP driver.
-Did you install the hydravision and MMC software? I'd uninstall and try drivers only if you did.
-Turn off fastwrites? Not supported by ATI anyway.
-Vcache, BIOS Shadowing disabled?
-Cache type should be UC and I'd set it @ 64MB initially if it isn't already. Try increasing it from that point to see if stability gets better.
-Did you drop down to AGP 2X?
-Are you OC'ing @ all? Maybe the 8500 doesn't like a AGP speed out of spec.
-Only other suggestion I can think of is be sure you let the drivers install in the directory they default to. I changed it and started having problems.
-When you updated the drivers, did you uninstall, then install the generic VGA's, reboot and install the 3286's? If not, that's the process.

The grapevine/peanut gallery keeps saying that new drivers should be out this week. Might want to wait a bit longer.

SamuraiSludge ATI committed to driver updates every 4 weeks. They're still on track. Let us not forget that nVIDIA has had a few problems as well with driver issues, GF3 launch.

This is my first ATI product, I'm not unhappy with my purchase.

 

[DraculR]

Well, the fact that you are running the 8500 fine in XP pro is good to hear.
I want to get a new video card, though im a little scared if you will, about running the 8500 under XP home due to all the problems that seem to be about. Does the performance of the radeon still suffer under XP?
Also, will an upgrade from a 32mb Geforce2 GTS to either a Ti200 or radeon 8500, give me a significant performance and image quality boost?
Will i be able to run say Tribes2 on my Athlon XP 1600+ system with full detail @ 1280*1024 with anti-alaising on at 30+ fps?

 

[Muadib]

Mua, sounds like an idiotic question, but did you do a fresh format and install before you switched cards?
No, I didn't do a format and fresh install as I'm thinking of going with XP myself. I was good to go until I installed the beta drivers though. I take it they work fine for you?

 

[Leon]

Radeon 8500 retail or LE ?

Remember, $195 Radeon 8500's you see on Pricewatch are actually underclocked LE versions.

 

[Rand]

Radeon 8500.

Better performance, better feature set, better DVD, better 2D, better FSAA image quality by default. You also get DVI output, video-out and hyrdraVision by default.

The lone saving grace of the Ti200 is that it's very slightly cheaper and definitely has better drivers.

Were it a comparison of the Ti500 and R8500 my opinion might differ, but the R8500 is undeniably a better option then the Ti200 IMHO.
The Ti200 has the better driver support but ATi has made marked improvements in their drivers of late and in general the R8500 works pretty well and most owners of it don't seem to be having many problems.

 

[epod]

Muadib, I've had my Radeon for over a month now, and I've been using the 3286 drivers, theyr'e awesome! I haven't had one crash or any issues at all with it. I'm running on WinXP, and I've been playing CS,Quake, Wolfenstein, and watching DVDs and using my ATI TV card. Not one crash...

 

[Freewolf]

I would take the radeon over the ti200 anyday. If you got the cash take the ti500 Gainward card.

 

[The_Lurker]

Radeon Radeon Radeon Radeon and o wait.. Radeon

 

[JK16]

Seeing as how you can now get a ti500 for $250 (same price as 8500) go with the ti200 if you are strapped for cash, or if you have $250, go with a ti500.

 

[scoobydooby]

Hey JK16, what brand of TI 500 is it and where can you get it? Thanks
Scoob

 

[SpeedTester]

<< Seeing as how you can now get a ti500 for $250 (same price as 8500) go with the ti200 if you are strapped for cash, or if you have $250, go with a ti500. >>



Cheapest TI-500 on pricewatch is $285.00 cheapest Radeon 8500 is $182.00

After trying out the Radeon 8500 on my friends Pc and the TI-200 on mine
I would without a doubt say go with the Radeon.

 

[Smbu]

<< In terms of features, the Radeon has the definite edge over NVidia. Features like HyperZ, Truform, and SmoothVision are quite innovative for current video card technology , and some of these features will most likely be adopted by NVidia at some point in the near future. >>


Just to let you know, all GF3 cards do have a HyperZ-like memory bandwidth saving feature called "Lightspeed Memory Architecture", although it's not quite as good as ATi's since they had it on the original Radeon cards, too.

Nvidia's MSAA with Anisotrophic filtering does seem to be better than Smoothvision. Plus you can actually play it at 4x.:Q

 

[Leon]

<< Cheapest TI-500 on pricewatch is $285.00 cheapest Radeon 8500 is $182.00 >>



Hmmm, this is bullsh1t. ATI still misleads the customers by selling underclocked OEM Radeon 8500LE under Radeon 8500 name. All $180-$220 Radeons you see on Pricewatch are 250/250, something they don't tell you



<< better FSAA image quality by default. >>



Hmmm, at least GF3 FSAA is actually playable, and does a better job at cleaning edges.

 

[taylor34]

Well, just got my radeon 8500 last week--And to tell you the truth I have no idea why people are having so many problems. I plugged it in, installed the drivers, and whalah! Took about 15 minutes. Works flawlessly with everything I play (nhl 2002, rtcw, ghost recon, mi4, stronghold). Must be an xp problem (i'm using 98 on an a7v133 motherboard w/sblive). So I would go with the radeon, not so much for the speed, but just because the color and features are better for what you pay for (i hate washed out colors :> ).

Taylor34

 

[Kingofcomputer]

newegg changed the description:

ATI RADEON 8500 LE 64MB DDR - OEM/White Box Powered by the revolutionary RADEON? 8500 world?s fastest and most advanced graphics processing unit (GPU) Features ATI's TRUFORM. SMARTSHADER SMOOTHVISION?, and HYPER Z II technologies The only GPU to support DirectX® 8.1 Supports OpenGL® 1.3 features 64MB of (DDR) memory Dual monitor and Video output support Industry-leading DVD video playback w/tv cable only - Core: 230MHz, NO DVI to VGA Adaptor! Fedex Saver Shipping $6.00

it's 230Mhz, not 250.

 

[tazdevl]

Newegg dinked the description. The only card running @ 230 is the 8500 AIW.

Mua no problems, running a retail 8500. Haven't tried to OC yet. The next round of drivers are supposedly in developers hands and scuttlebutt indicates it's under/over Ti500 by 3-5 FPS. Of course, no news on stability, compatibility etc...

Running XP Pro, fresh install.

DraculR, I suggest you read the reviews of the 8500 with 3286 drivers. Not sure what issues you're talking about. XP is as fast as 2K with the latest drivers, in some cases a bit faster, others a bit slower.

 

[Rand]

<<

<< Cheapest TI-500 on pricewatch is $285.00 cheapest Radeon 8500 is $182.00 >>



Hmmm, this is bullsh1t. ATI still misleads the customers by selling underclocked OEM Radeon 8500LE under Radeon 8500 name. All $180-$220 Radeons you see on Pricewatch are 250/250, something they don't tell you

Not really misleading because they do differentiate the clockspeeds with the "LE" part on the OEM version and third party R8500's. Individual vendors don't differentiate, but ATi themselves do.
The R7500 is the misleading one in which they don't inform the customer it's clocked lower.

Nonetheless, even at 250/250 it still manages to outperform the GF3 Ti200, and you can flash the BIOS to the retail R8500 bios to get the same voltage which pretty much assures that you can clock it to retail speeds.




<< better FSAA image quality by default. >>



Hmmm, at least GF3 FSAA is actually playable, and does a better job at cleaning edges. >>



You have to enable 64tap anisotropic filtering to get the same visual quality though, and then your down to being only marginally above R8500 speeds. Plus you could always enable anisotropic filtering on the R8500 with a pretty minimal performance hit to put it back up above the GF3.

 

[PointlesS]

<< newegg changed the description:

ATI RADEON 8500 LE 64MB DDR - OEM/White Box Powered by the revolutionary RADEON? 8500 world?s fastest and most advanced graphics processing unit (GPU) Features ATI's TRUFORM. SMARTSHADER SMOOTHVISION?, and HYPER Z II technologies The only GPU to support DirectX® 8.1 Supports OpenGL® 1.3 features 64MB of (DDR) memory Dual monitor and Video output support Industry-leading DVD video playback w/tv cable only - Core: 230MHz, NO DVI to VGA Adaptor! Fedex Saver Shipping $6.00

it's 230Mhz, not 250. >>


my oem radeon came as 250/250 from newegg...I love my radeon 8500...serious sam:second encounter looks amazing with truform...some goes with rtcw...myth 3...