Radeon 8500: OEM vs Retail

[Animal -OCXL-]

I just ordered an OEM Radeon 8500 (to take a break from nvidia cards since TNT 1) thinking OEM was the same thing as retail, except for the software package wich I dont care about.

Well now I'm reading in some posts about some people doing BIOS flashes to turn their OEM to retail and make them faster.
What gives? Is the retail card the same as the OEM just with a faster clock? or do they actually have faster RAM chips too? Please let me know ASAP.



PS.: Is an OEM 8500 faster than a Geforce 3 Ti200?

Thanks!

 

[lifeguard1999]

Radeon 8500 OEM (also known as the Radeon 8500LE) has a core/mem clock speed of 250/250.

The retail Radeon 8500 has a core/mem clock speed of 275/275.

The retail Radeon 8500 beats the GF3 Ti500 in some tests, and loses in others. All-in-all it is about a tie between the two of them.

 

[Animal -OCXL-]

Can the Radeon 8500 OEM be clocked to Retail speeds without problems?
or is the HARDWARE actually lower speed?

 

[Frolic]

As far as I know the hardware is the same. Can't remember where I read it but you can fix this and ATI is very unhappy about that fact spreading...

 

[jamautosound]

Well, your question raised my eyebrows, as I just purchased the oem version thinking it was the same hardware wise.

Check this out:
http://www.tech-report.com/news_reply.x/3015/

Edit: read the comments also.

 

[Animal -OCXL-]

Hey jamautosound, thanks for the article.
I think I'll go OEM anyways. The extra 25Mhz doesnt seem to be much of a difference in real time gaming, but the price difference IS big.

 

[SpeedTester]

Dont forget the Retail packs a 3 year warrantee where as the OEM is 1 year or less.
I hope to get my Retail 8500 from Dell before Christmas.

 

[The_Lurker]

Hardware's the same. Only difference is the packaging and the software package.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

ATI made oem card has the same warranty as retail card.
oem may not have the dvi to vga converter, s-video cable, rca video cable, all depends on the vendors.

3rd party made "Powered by ATI" card of course doesn't have warranty from ATI.

 

[Redemmer]

The OEM is used with different bios at lower voltage rating, so you really can't overclock to the Retail speeds. You'll need the Retail Bios and Drivers plus the ATi Flash utlity to flash the OEM to retail.

 

[Forgiven]

I did the retail bois flash trick and I could then get mine up to 280 core and 270 mem...kind of underwhelming. The flash did help but most won't get the 275/275 so don't count on it. The udate is pretty easy but will yeild little. Of course I could get the card to run a little faster provided I didn't mind the artifacts.

Hope this helps

 

[moocat]

The hardware isn't exactly the same...some OEMs (like mine) use 4ns ram instead of the 3.6ns. I'm not sure but I also think some flavors of OEM 8500s have the DVI connector and some don't. Don't quote me on that though.

 

[CoioL]

Newegg seems to be offering a Radeon LE with a 230 MHz core. Is it an underclocked LE, or with even slower memory? Has anyone ordered this card? And can it be overclocked to retail speeds without adding cooling?

Thanks

 

[jamautosound]

Original speed was 250/250. I used powerstrip to get 274.5/267.75, that was the highest I could get without any artifacts.

Does anyone know where to get the bios upgrade?
I couldn't find it on ATI's website.

 

[triska]

i applied tt hs on teh ram
and a pentium cooler
hit 295/590
with an OEM!
heheh, pretty nice!!
i think that is a nice OC'er~and card was still cooled, but 300 wouldnt let me pass
DOH!
hehe

 

[millsy]

I have found a Super ATI Radeon 8500LE AGP 64MB DDR Dual Display DVI+TV Out - Retail Box
for £173 English Pounds.
Is the model just the OEM version so slightly lower clock rate. Everything else is the same right???

 

[Mustanggt]

Im not sure about this but there a LE thats 230 MHz core and then there is regular OEM thats 250 MHz core there not one in the same.

 

[millsy]

I bought the OEM anyway and it was clocked at 250/250. Managed to overclock to 275/275 using Powerstrip with no problems. Still testing at this speed, but I think it will easily go higher.

 

[SsZERO]

The Radeon 8500 blows away the current offerings from NVIDIA and any other competitor. The retail 8500 equalled or beat the GF3 Ti 500 across the board in benchmarks, using the latest radeon drivers. On top of this, the Radeon has vastly superior image quality and DVD playback capabilities when compared to the GF3. Think of ATI is to NVIDIA as AMD is to INTEL...better and cheaper.

The performance differences between the retail and OEM are negligible, and would not be noticed in actual gameplay. For this reason, the OEM/LE version is the best bang for your buck. For those of you with an OEM/LE 8500, you can get the flash program and retail bios here:

http://www.xcl-clan.com/download.php3?id=61

It MAY OR MAY NOT work for you, it depends on what kind of card you have...see, there are "real" oem cards that use 4.0ns ram, and "fake" oem cards, which are actually retail cards flashed with OEM bios, which lowers the clock from 275/275 to 250/250...but the "fake" oem cards use 3.6ns HYNIX ram, from hyundai. These are the cards that will run at 275/275 by default AFTER you flash them, because they were retail cards in the first place. The real OEM cards are most likely going to max out around 270/270.

-= SsZERO =-

 

[Spike]

Has anyone bought the Radeon 8500 LE OEM from Newegg? If so, is it really underclocked to 230mhz? This has me really concerned as I just ordered from them, but then noticed that they claim it runs at 230mhz. If that is true, I am going to RMA that thing so fast and pay the $2 more to get the regular OEM with the 250 speed.

 

[SsZERO]

No, the Radeon LE and OEM are both 250/250. It is a mistake on Newegg's part, which they should correct.

-= SsZERO =-



<< Has anyone bought the Radeon 8500 LE OEM from Newegg? If so, is it really underclocked to 230mhz? This has me really concerned as I just ordered from them, but then noticed that they claim it runs at 230mhz. If that is true, I am going to RMA that thing so fast and pay the $2 more to get the regular OEM with the 250 speed. >>

 

[Darius]

I am not so sure about the Newegg misprint. I did see somewhere that 230Mhz Core LE versions have been found. I will try to find the link now.

 

[Spike]

Oh man, I hope it is a mis-print. I really want this card and will settle for a 250 speed (lets see, at 250 it is slightly out-preformed by a Ti500, but for $120 less.....)

 

[FreakyGuy]

"What Exactly Is The Deal With OEM And Retail Radeon 8500s?"

This site shows how to convert your card to a Retail version!

Oh and there are LE versions from Japan clocked at 230mhz floating around. Watch your back.

BTW I just picked up a Retail Made by ATI 8500 for $215 shipped off Ebay.

 

[UncleWai]

in the beginning, Newegg needed to get rid of the remaining R8500@ 250 as R8500LE.
Now they are shipping the R8500@230 w/ 3.6ns ram.
look at the review, i talked with a couple guys that have theirs @ 230.

now here's the question, where is another reliable online store that sell Radeon 8500@250 cheap?