ati 8500 le or ati 9000 pro

[BigMoe]

what card? what are the pros and cons of each card? are there any compatibelety issues with ithere car and the abit kt7a mainboard? how are the drivers?

 

[Johnbear007]

I believe its best to go with an 8500le 128MB. you can either OC it to retail level, OR flash it and it is a retail 8500... same card just locked diff.

the 9000 pro is crippled I hear. it offers dx 9 compatibility but by the time you will NEED that, it would be time to upgrade anyway.

 

[BigMoe]

thanks 8500 it is

 

[AnAndAustin]

Rad9000 is NOT DX9 it is simply a cut down Rad8500 which is cheaper to build. As an rough but accurate guide: Rad9000 is 20% slower than Rad9000PRO is 15% slower than Rad8500LE is 10% slower than Rad8500. Rads vary by manu so do check the clock speeds and dual RAMDACs for dual display. Rad9000PRO is inferior to Rad8500LE although it does have slightly improved DVD/MPEG playback and image quality the 3D perf is a LOT worse. Another note is that unlike the Rad9000PRO, Rad8500 (inc LE) really gain from 128MB so a Rad8500LE-128 is a much better buy than as Rad8500-64. Here's some links:

Tech-Report

AnAndTech