8500le or 9000pro, for now and the future

[Paul7]

I have narrowed it down to these two:
- ati 8500le from newegg for $89
- ati oem 9000 pro for $89

Which would be better for now and the future. I do not buy video cards very often.

Current system:
windows XP pro, XP1800, MSI K7N420(nforce)

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

I think that the 8500LE is a better buy, even at the same price. You can o/c it to 8500 levels, and it will outperform a 9000.

 

[MithShrike]

It depends on what you want it for. If you want a feature like FullStream I'd go with the 9000, however, the LE has one more texture unit per pipe and can outperform in most situations... the issue of overclocking also comes up, the 9000s don't usually have very fast memory but the core is smaller... OK there... I say go with the LE.

 

[rogue1979]

I am gonna go against the grain and say 9000 Pro. I had both and think the 9000 series has slightly improved 2D and 3D. They overclock easily to 300/300, and while behind in benchmarks, in actual real world gaming it is close to the original 8500 performance when overclocked.

 

[Goi]

rogue1979, when you say improved 2D and 3D, do you mean performance or image quality? I'm pondering between either of these cards too(64MB), and I'm worried about the image quality as well, especially when playing DVDs. Fullstream as of now is a non-issue since only 1 application takes advantage of it.

 

[rogue1979]

For image quality I thought the 9000 series was a little sharper. I never had the cards running side by side, but I believe there is a slight improvement.