5200 128mb versus 8500 64mb

[Schadenfroh]

i was unsure of this, one of my friends has a 8500 and he cannot afford anything more than a 5200 where he lives (in britain) so, i was thinking isnt a 5200 non ultra not as good as a 8500? but then i thought about the memory differances. which one would you go with out of those two, he cant get anything besides a 5200, so dont bother recommending another, believe me, i have tried to talk him into getting another

thnx

 

[Lonyo]

How much £££ does he have? Just because he's limited in terms of £££ doesn't mean it won't be possible to find a nice deal on a better card than the 5200 somewhere .

I don't think a 5200NU is any better than an 8500, if it's even as good. The extra DX9 features will be too slow to use, and the extra RAM won't do much as you won't be able to turn up the res or AA/AF anyway due to lack of power. I'd tell him to sit tight (unless there is a nice dela on something better somewhere).

 

[McArra]

I'd stay with the 8500.

 

[selfbuilt]

Have him check out Tom's VGA round-up III. He'll see the that the 5200nu consistently underperforms the 8500 64MB on every game (sometimes by a wide margin). Even the 5200U often underperforms the 8500.

Of course, that is with typical versions of those cards ... as we all know, they both come in so many versions (some which drastically underperform due to bandwidth limitations or low core/mem speeds), that it's possible a good 5200 could equal a really bad 8500 ... but as a general rule, he would be trading down.

 

[modedepe]

Stick with the 8500, it's not worth spending money on a 5200 that will only be a sidegrade at best. The only advantage of the 5200 is the extra memory, but then again the mem on it will be clocked lower than the 8500 and you have the incredibley weak nv34 chipset.

 

[Pete]

Tell him to put that money away and to keep saving until he can afford a decent upgrade, like to a used GF4Ti or 5600U (provided he has a decent PSU), both of which should be below $100.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: modedepe
a sidegrade at best.

i love that term!! side grade

but yeah stick with the 8500
if only u posted earlier i had a GF3 Ti200 for sale at 20 quid!!!!!!!!!!!
the GF3 and the 8500 where out round the same time going up against each other....sadly this is PRE 9700 era so ATI werent too good...the GF3 easily owned the 8500