230mhz ATI Radeon8500 64MB OEM??!

[clicknext]

I just bought a Radeon8500 64MB OEM version... and it's clocked at 230!! Isn't it supposed to be 250?!? I'm quite sure that this thing is made by ATI since it says ATI all over it, and has an ATI fan. So what's with this? Was I ripped off?

EDIT: I've found out from an article at overclockers.com that the OEM versions of this card are supposed to have a BIOS P/N of 113-85707-103 and retail version is supposed to have 113-85707-102. Mine is 113-85707-100. (notice that it ends with 100 instead of 103.) What could this mean?...

 

[AgentofEvil]

OEM and non ATI cards are clocked lower. They are also undervolted, so you may have trouble overclocking to retail speeds. This is one of the few times where there is a difference between buying retail and OEM.
Here's an article about it.

 

[clicknext]

All my sources say that OEM is supposed to be clocked at 250, while retail is at 275. But mine is at 230... =/ And yes, it was quite difficult for me to overclock to higher than 260.

 

[Rand]

Ati's retail boards are clocked at 275/275, as its their AIW board.
Their OEM and 8500LE products are clocked at 250/250.
The 8500DV is clocked at 230//190.

Third party ATi Radeon 8500 boards vary in clockspeed from 290/290 down to 230/230.
Soyo has a 290/290 R8500, Gigabyte and Hecules have 275/275 boards.
Gigabyte has an upcoming 300/300 R8500 board.


Besides that the vast majority of third party R8500's are clocked at 250/250, and almost every third party manufacturer that produces ATi boards has a varient clocked at 250/250.

There are a relatively small number of 230/230 boards around also.
If it's clocked at 230/230 it is most definitely not one of ATi's own boards. You've got a third party R8500.

May I safely presume you purchased the board from NewEgg?
They seem to be the only company selling the 230/230 clocked R8500.

 

[clicknext]

Nope, you may not safetly presume that I purchased it from newegg.com. =P
I got it from www.ncix.com, a canadian based retailer.

I think that it's an ATI board because it says ATI all over it and doesn't mention any other name!

 

[Oracle]

I have the same card from ncix.It is an ATI oem made by Sapphiretech.com clocked at 230\230.It does however have the 3.6 nanya chips.If you go to the reader comments under this item at ncix you will find a link to a bios upgrade that will flash the card to 275\275 Retail.The site is filemirrors.com and the file is called flashradeon 8500.

 

[clicknext]

Hmm thank you for your response...

The card I have, however, doesn't look like the card on the sapphiretech website. Mine has a black fan instead of the green one shown on the website, and also, if it's made by sapphire, should it really say "built by ATI"?

Well I'll look a bit harder at the threads on ncix...

 

[clicknext]

High again everyone, thanks for your time and stuff...

After much trouble, I found out that they actually sold me a Radeon8500LE 64MB OEM. These apparently, are supposed to be clocked at 230. The only place they mentioned LE on the site though, is in fine print, where it says part#.

Ok... now can anyone tell me how to check if my card uses 3.3ns ram or any other kind? The numbers on the hynix ram that the card uses end with "-33" could that mean anything?

Once again, thanks for your help. ^^