Dhell 8500 Problem Solved and is the 8500 worth it?

[tazdevl]

I think I've solved the Dhell mystery Scooby Doo fans... first I'm going to set up this trap where I call Dhell and cancel my order. Next thing they ship my card the SAME day. It's happened to several other folks as well. I think there is something screwy with their order/logistics system. Don't buy stock in SAP.

Next question is... people that have owned GF3/8500... if you haven't, please don't respond... is this card honestly worth keeping? My rig is 100% new, 1800, A7V266E, Audigy, RAID 0 (60GXP's), modded LianLi, 3Com, 21" Mitsubishi 2040u, will be doing a reformat with XP Pro.

I hate having to tweak my card for specific games... and in my mind I'm not getting my moneys worth if I have to. I don't want to apply registry hacks unless it's to OC. My main game is CS and as you all know, FPS is the most important thing.

Again, if you haven't had both, had both, I don't want to hear from you.

Alternate card is a Gainward GF3.

I also do not have the patience to blindly hope for a decent set of drivers in the next 3 months. It should work when I smack it in, with no problems... period.

Thanks

 

[Vegito]

I sent mine back, i had it for 4 hours, on phone with tech, dual screen does not work well, crashes like crazy on a standard CUSL2 system with crucial memory and sb live. Thats like pretty standard setup for anybody.. and I got 3 of the same setup. I even let another user here tried the card for 2 days and he's got a iwll tbird and it still came up crap

my only game is CS.. and currently on g400, it's pretty good..

 

[tazdevl]

forcesho, couple of questions...

1) Were you using the latest drivers?
2) Did you pull out all the nVIDIA reg entires before installing the 8500?

 

[jbirney]

Tazdevl,

see this link:

My thoughts on ATI 8500

I have had no issues what so ever with mine. Included in the linky are system specs and lots of Screen Shoots as well as a few benchies

 

[Wag]

Well, then you're one of the few lucky ones, because it seems almost everyone else is having problems.

I've had the card for almost a month now, and I can tell you, it's a dog. It would be good if it actually worked, but between the lock-ups, buggy games, rendering artifacts, stuttering, broken dual-head features, this card is far from being ready for prime-time.

That said, my setup is very similar to jbirney's. If I get a chance, I'll probably sell the card and get a Ti200. I primarily bought this card because it offered dual-VGA and was full powered. If it doesn't work, what's the point? This looks to be my first and last ATI purchase. I didn't beleive, but now I do.

 

[tazdevl]

jbirney, thanks for the link. Here's the question. Have you owned both GF3 and 8500? What I don't see on your review (nice by the way) is a direct comparison between it and another card. Also, did you not have one problem with the card in all that work? Broken textures? BSOD's?

I guess I'm trying to figure out:

1) how many folks have/had problems?
2) are they serious problems BSOD or just broken textures?
3) was performance good/bad/inconsistent?
4) how many are wasting a lot of time tweaking the card?
5) did you return the card?
6) before you decided to return the card... did you do a reformat... pull the reg entries?

 

[chizow]

taz,

If you decide not to keep the Radeon 8500 lmk, I'll take it off your hands at a reasonable price. I'm currently trying out a VisTek GF3 ti200 that I got at BB as an Xmas present for my bro-in-law. I'm not real impressed with it.

Chiz

 

[Vegito]

G400 is not nvidia, i dont own nvidia stuff anyway, I have a fluck of systems, all where rebuilt with clean w98se or w2k and i use ghost so i can test different drivers without reinstalling

i tried lastest driver even the one on rage3d's hack..

i let another use tried the card, and it was better but he was using the old 7200 and the driver were the same, so it was "plug and play"

it work better on his system but later on it crash and burn..
he told me the 7500 ? was a better card...

so for today, a geforce would be a better buy, but in 1-3 month, if 8500 has better drive, it would probably rock..

but the reviews lately says 8500 isn't all that crack up to be..

anyway, as a diamond member, uninstall driver is like pulling a newbie, anyone should know using ghost and making a baseline driver free machine is the way to go

my machine is a generic cusl2, sb live, crucial ram, that many people have, you can't get any more generic then that... it could be that i have a bad card but it worked for a while on someone else's and then problem started...

 

[tazdevl]

LOL sure Chiz... I'll PM you after I decide what to do.

 

[jbirney]

<< jbirney, thanks for the link. Here's the question. Have you owned both GF3 and 8500? What I don't see on your review (nice by the way) is a direct comparison between it and another card. Also, did you not have one problem with the card in all that work? Broken textures? BSOD's?

I guess I'm trying to figure out:

1) how many folks have/had problems?
2) are they serious problems BSOD or just broken textures?
3) was performance good/bad/inconsistent?
4) how many are wasting a lot of time tweaking the card?
5) did you return the card?
6) before you decided to return the card... did you do a reformat... pull the reg entries? >>



Tazdevl,

no I only tried the 8500. I was able to get the card for $100 less than the Ti 500. Not one single error, lock up or re-boot at all. I did reformat as I had a K2 on their before. Tweaking was very easy...I will keep this card and so far it was worth the 250 I spent.

Jb