ATI Radeon 8500LE or Gainward GeForce3 Ti200

[canadaspy]

I'm trying to decide between the ATI Radeon 8500LE and the Gainward GeForce3 Ti200 from newegg.com. I've heard that the ATI Radeon 8500LE is a better card than a standard GeForce3 Ti200, but the Gainward is generally considered better than most GeForce3 Ti200's (when it's overclocked). The Radeon is cheaper too. At newegg.com the ATI Radeon 8500LE is $91 (shipped) as opposed to the Gainward GeForce3 Ti200 at $119 (shipped). What do you think?

 

[Rand]

Unquestionably the R8500LE... at similar price points the 8500LE is the clear choice, when it's almost $30 cheaper then the Ti200 it's not even remotely questionable.
Better performance, better 2D quality, better feature set, better DVD quality, etc etc.
Their are very few areas in which the GF3 Ti200 matches up to let alone beats out the 8500LE.

The GF3 is a solid board, and Gainward is an excellent manufacturer (Too bad their customer support stinks).. indeed I'm running a Gainward board right this moment. But in the end, the R8500 is slightly superior in almost every respect.

BTW, go with the $87 Radeon 8500LE from NewEgg. Not only is it slightly faster as it comes clocked at 250/275 rather then the 230/230 of the $91 R8500 it also comes with 3.3ns DDR RAM and has been recieving some reports of excellent overclockability.

For $87 it's a damn nice deal for that calibar of graphics card.

 

[canadaspy]

hmmm. At newegg.com, when I click "Chipset Info" on the $87 Radeon 8500LE, it says the clock speed is 250/230Mhz. Is that wrong?

 

[AnAndAustin]

This link may help: AnAndTech Forum

Rand is right, at comparable prices the Rad8500 cards kick GF3's butt! The ONLY areas GF3 cards are better is the AA and the Aniso, while half the speed (GF3 10% vs Rad8500 5% hit), is undoubtedly better quality. As a very neutral individual the Rad8500 cards are better than GF3 cards when prices are comparable, as Rand says, Radeon8500 cards offer over GF3 cards better '2D' image quality, perf (even when both cards are o/c'ed), better TVout, DVD playback, faster Aniso, sharper AA (although VERY slow, Rad8500 50% vs GF3 10% hit) etc. However beware oem (vs retail) and non-ATI ('powered by ATI') Radeon cards as they are clocked slower, use cheaper RAM, o/c very poorly and for non-ATI Radeons also lose build and '2D' image quality. See what the price diffs are, but oem or 'powered by ATI' Radeons are about 10% slower than the retail or 'built by ATI' Radeons. Regarding o/c'ability on any gfx card, it is dictated almost solely by the RAM implimented, the lower the ns rating the faster it should run, 3.3ns is very fast and is pretty much guaranteed to hit 600mhz and probably 650mhz!

 

[canadaspy]

I'm having the hardest time finding a "Built By" ATI Radeon 8500LE for less than $149. Looks like ATI only builds that model in a 128MB DDR version, which is fine. All the 64MB DDR versions I've found are "powered by" knock offs. Can somebody point me in the right direction? Thanks.

 

[AnAndAustin]

I'm afraid I'm in the UK so don't have any specific Canadian info. However don't worry too much about getting a 64MB, oem or 'powered by ATI' card if the price diffs are huge. Do check out a GF3TI200 128MB for comparison, it will almost certainly have worse '2D' image quality than any Radeon, will give about the same 3D perf but is streets ahead in AA perf plus Aniso is very nice quality too. In short, you really do want a 128MB card if at all possible, a 'powered' oem Radeon8500LE 128MB is generally better than a 'built' retail Radeon8500 64MB. Shop around and see how the prices weigh up.

 

[BP]

Originally posted by: canadaspy
I'm having the hardest time finding a "Built By" ATI Radeon 8500LE for less than $149. Looks like ATI only builds that model in a 128MB DDR version, which is fine. All the 64MB DDR versions I've found are "powered by" knock offs. Can somebody point me in the right direction? Thanks.

Here you go.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=48&manufactory=1126&DEPA=1

 

[BP]

Let's try a linkable version.........

Newegg 8500le 64meg