Geforce 3 or Radeon 8500

[DarkKnight]

I'm thinking of getting a new video card to replace my TNT2 and I want to know what card is better, Geforce 3 or Radeon 8500. The cards have been out a couple of months and have had a chance to improve their drivers. When the Radeon first came up, the reviews said that the Radeon is a good card and that it could be better than a GF3 if ATI improved the drivers. Have the drivers for the Radeon improved? If so, which card is better now?

 

[Rand]

MKight want to check out this thread as there is a similar debate going on.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

...and this one. Or perhaps this one, or maybe even this one.

Hmmm, I guess you could choose this one too. If all else fails, how about this one?

Should I continue, or do you get my point? This has been discussed to death. Finding these links took me all of 3 minutes.

Edit: please note all of those links are different.

 

[Randskey]

There seems to be a lot of unhappy useres over at the Radeon forum at rage3d.com:
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthr...274&threadid=33599793&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

A lot of the "unhappiness" stems from what looks to be poor driver support. This thread appears to be populated with gamers. You can draw your conclusions from the discussions. Your decision will of course depend on what you intend to do on your PC (games vs. business vs. video prod, etc).

FYI, I'm going to be sticking with my Nvidia GF3 Ti200 for a while for my gaming habit.

 

[Forgiven]

I would buy an 8500 OEM and do the voltage mod (pencil etch) as per here http://www.xcl-clan.com/articles.php3?id=29&p=1

You could do the retail bios flash (unnecessary but I did it without a hitch though). For about 175 I have a card running at 280/280 with the latest drivers...KICKING Nvidia but. How does 86-8700 varies slightly on each run on 3dmark 2001. Settings are 1028X768 at 32 bit color. This is not BS...also I have an XP at 1.65 Gig on an epox 8kha+ at around a 150 mhz front side bus. AWESOME CARD. I also went to comp geeks and for 10 bucks delivered got a dvi to vga adapter and am now running two monitors. For those who have never done it or seen it you are missing on one of lifes true treasures to have independent monitors and a super high framrates. Also this will have Svideo out with best in class DVD...Must I continue...I will...YOU MUST GET THE LATEST DRIVERS FROM RAGE3D.com or else you wont get these good scores. Also I think it is VERY crisp 2d and...that is enough, get this card.