Essentially they are identical other than the clock speeds used and often the RAM used too. This means Rad8500LE are about 10% slower than Rad8500 but both should o/c about 10% meaning you usually get at least Rad8500 perf out of a Rad8500LE. Both should support all the same features and functions inc DX8, hw DVD playback, dual display etc etc. As with all Radeon cards the actual clcoks and often features vary by manu as well as oem vs retail versions, so always double check before you buy, worst case is generally that you lose 10% perf and dual display functionality. Rad8500LE are much mroe likely to come in 128MB versions which is definitely well worth it in Radeon cards as the extra often gives nearly a 10% perf lift even before it's truly needed, so a Rad8500LE-128MB is definitely a better buy than a Rad8500-64MB.
As with all gfx cards and comnponents in general there isn't any guaranteed o/c, but there are o/c's which are often easily attained. So clocks should be:
ATI Rad8500-retail=275/550
ATI Rad8500LE-retail=250/500
Rad8500LE tend to hit 275/550 if not higher while Rad8500 can sometimes hit 300/600. IIRC Rad8500 use 3.6ns RAM while Rad8500LE use 4.0ns RAM, if the numbers are higher the cards are unlikely to o/c well. You can read the ns rating of the RAM chips from the RAM chips themselves, generally the 2nd line down, last 2 digits. But really the only way is to test it in practice by slowly raising the clocks a bit at a time and testing thoroughly at each setting, when you get visual glitches simply back off a few notches to avoid overly stressing the card and ensuring long term stability, rem it doesn't matter what other people get, anything you can get is a free bonus!
Facebook
Twitter