GF3 Ti500 (64MB) or 8500LE (128MB)

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XCLAN

Platinum Member
Mar 22, 2001
2,401
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comparing apples to oranges.

radeon = excellent pic quality

geforce = crap pic but fast

i have a radeon and a geforce 3....my radeon is a 8500le and i would prefer it over my geforce 3, even though my geforce 3 is runnin at 230/535

my radeon is 250/250, looks better to me.

here is the final factor.

the geforce 4 ti4200 is 37$ more than the 8500le on pricewatch.

i got my 8500le at newegg for 72$ refurbed, and it has dvi, 250/250{it overclocks great}

show me a cost/performance ration , and yer gettin bent over with a ti4200 and nasty picture to boot.
 

rizge

Member
May 21, 2002
36
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ok
if u buy these u will never have a problem with the graphic card
sorted discending from best to moderate (with a max price of ~180$ :
4200 (oc too good to be true :) sometimes to 4600 speeds!!! )
radeon 8500
geforce 3 ti 500
radeon 8500 le
geforce 3
geforce 3 ti 200
radeon 9000 pro
mx 460
mx 440


 

gregor7777

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,758
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71
Originally posted by: Blaize
OK, I have to admit, I don't get this at all.

I'm a gamer, more or less, and I'm planning to buy a video card in the $150 range in the next month or so. This thread piqued my interest - the Radeon 8500 and (maybe) the GF4 Ti4200 are at the top of my list.

So...Gregor and BFG10K are arguing that an 8500 will consistently beat a Ti4200. I read Anand's Radeon 9000 review (from July) and saw the 4200 usually beat the 8500. But I understand that drivers can change significantly in three months.

I read the Ace's Hardware article and saw the 8500 do well against the Ti4200. However, I noticed it was from July too, about a week after Anand's.

Lastly and MOST CONFUSINGLY, I read a Radeon 9000 round-up from yesterday, 9/18, with benchmarks including the 8500 and Ti4200. The Ti4200 consistently outperformed the 8500, usually by a wide margin. They're the 64mb parts, but since they're both 64mb, it should still be meaningful. From what I can tell, they used current drivers for the NVidia and ATI parts.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon/r9000-3.html


...I don't get it. I'm pretty sure I know less about hardware than most people on these forums. So what am I missing?

-Ryan

Keep in my here that, at least in my opinion and I know many others, we are in another "transitional period" with video where running at resoloution like 1024 x 768 without AA or AF, you can pretty much take your pick of cards and do well with just about anything out there. Now, cards are out there now where running at a higher resoloution (1600 x 1200) or lower resoloution with 16x AF and AA is possible and definitely playable, but not every card is great at it.

The 8500 and for that matter the 9700 as well allows you to run the above configurations in much better fashion in many instances than some of the Nvidia soloutions.

This is a point that myself and BFG are bringing to the table here.

 

alexruiz

Platinum Member
Sep 21, 2001
2,836
556
126
Good thread!! :)

The question about how some sites report the radeon 8500 on top of the ti4200 while others show the opposite is really interesting. I noticed the same, but if you dig into configurations, settings and even the bechmarks used you notice a general trend (I place emphasis on the general, because in not all the cases it is that way)

- Nvidia cards run much better in older games (quack 3)
- Radeon cards do it better in games with bigger textures (Jedi knight II) or where the game tunes itself for a specific card (both Serious Sam:FE & Serious Sam:SE)
- If AA is used, usually nividia wins.
- If AF is used, the radeon wins.

I totally agree, the radeon 8500 is competitive with the ti4200, beating it fairly often and in some cases even beating the Ti4600. I am not totally surprised because on paper, the hardware specs of the radeon 8500 are superior to the Ti500..... The radeon 8500 had a hard time with the ti500 because of drivers. :)

I am a little late joining the thread, but I was to suggest a radeon 9000 (not pro) 64 MB.... It is much cheaper than the other 2, will run the current games in a decent way, and you don't need to worry a lot about future compatibility unless internet browsing becomes saturated with huge textures.... ;)

Alex
 

Blaize

Junior Member
Sep 19, 2002
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OK, I think I have a better understanding of this now. Unfortunately, I've already bid on a Ti4200 on eBay for $110. :/ I'm not stressed...if I get it, I figure it's a good price, and if I don't get it, I'll probably get an 8500.

Now, for my second question. NVidia has a good reputation for Linux driver and developer support, and except for games, I spend all my time in Linux. Does anyone here have any experience running a Radeon under Linux?

-Ryan
 

gregor7777

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,758
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Originally posted by: Blaize
OK, I think I have a better understanding of this now. Unfortunately, I've already bid on a Ti4200 on eBay for $110. :/ I'm not stressed...if I get it, I figure it's a good price, and if I don't get it, I'll probably get an 8500.

Now, for my second question. NVidia has a good reputation for Linux driver and developer support, and except for games, I spend all my time in Linux. Does anyone here have any experience running a Radeon under Linux?

-Ryan


That card at that price will do well by you I should think. :)
 

Ray78

Junior Member
Jan 24, 2000
21
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I have a sort of related question.

Would it be worth upgrading from a Radeon 32 DDR to the 8500 LE or is the performance gain not worth it?
 

gregor7777

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,758
0
71
Originally posted by: Ray78
I have a sort of related question.

Would it be worth upgrading from a Radeon 32 DDR to the 8500 LE or is the performance gain not worth it?

It could be a huge performance gain, but it depends on the rest of your system and the games you play.

 

Johnbear007

Diamond Member
Jul 1, 2002
4,570
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Originally posted by: rizge
Are you joking guys:Q
Absolutely get the geforce 3 ti 500 if u got the money!!!!!!
Did u guys forget that the ti 500 is on the par and even better than the 8500LE's big brother (R8500)
I assure u that u will never been disappointed
THAT I AM COMPLETELY SURE THE ti500 will smoke the 8500le in any and every game or bench

I dont think you should ever take anyone seriously who uses 'u' in place of 'you' with such abandon.
 

YeloAggie

Member
Feb 7, 2002
45
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you made the right choice. the 8500LE a lot better than the geforce3. the others are the die hard nvidia freaks (like i use to be). i got mine for $66.25 rebur. at newegg so i got a steal. but for $99.00 you can get the PNY geforce4 4200 at best buy and that is also a steal. for the others that want a benchmark for the cards, i can post the link for you today after i get out of school. its from tomshardware and i think might solve everyones problem. just get the new bios like everyone said and you should do 275/275 fine. my benchmarks actually beat out all the geforce4 lines in 3dmark2001se. ill post that for you nvidia freaks too.
 

gregor7777

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,758
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Radeon 8500 Retail : 275 core/275 mem
Radeon 8500 LE : 250 core/250 mem OR sometimes 250/230
Radeon 8500 LELE or Radeon 8500 OEM : 230/230
 
Sep 3, 2002
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Hey for all you people complaining about the Geforce 4's image quality, heres and idea...

company called leadtek replaces the RGB filters so that theyre really high quality, pretty much only beatable by the Martox parhelia.

Performance and IQ to boot, and i got my ti4200 for 135 from newegg. And in my now TERRIBLY cooled midtower(im gettin 3 vantec 8cm stealths in this week to go with my 2 6cm) the ocs range from 275/580 to 300/605 depending on the temp that day...and when i got it cooled more im expecting about 315/620...

so after all my rambling, no i am not an nvidia zealot(ive only bout theyre card cuz they were the best at the time for my price range...leadtek TNT2, GF2-gts-v and the ti4200) but the IQ CAN be good in a GF4, even though ATI OWNS the low and high end right now.