OEM 8500LE or o/c'ed Ti200?????

[stingrae]

Hi ppl,
OK ,now is finally the time!!!!!!!..My respected,worshipped mighty TNT2 is going to retire after 2 & 1/2 years..my dad has given my limit for nearly 200$ (approx. 400 Singapore $).so,my options are down to either a very high quality GF3Ti200 or a OEM Radeon8500LE..this is to go with my 1.4GHz TBird with 256MBDDR RAM on a ECSK7S5A..
btw,my TNT2 is not as crappy as some might think,in this setup,it runs Max Payne at 1024x768x16 at a perfectly fair framerate!thus,what i mean to say is that if a TNT2 can be so good for me,i can happily live with a GF3(which is 1 step behind the latest & the greatest GF4) for another 2-3years OR Is it better to actually wait and get a GF4 Ti4200 after like 3 months??Is it worth the wait??..
so which do you think is the RIGHT CHOICE?????...please help URGENTLY!!!!..

{all prices are in singapore $}

The contenders are:-

1)Elsa Gladiac 721 Ti200 64MB DDR - 395$
+bundled with Giants full version and 3DMark2001 full version
+great overclockability
+great driver support and rocksolid stability in games,i.e,IT IS AN nVIDIA
-Ti200 chip at 175/200,i.e,slower than a Radeon8500..unless o/c'ed

2)Guillemot Hercules Prophet III Ti200 64MB DDR - 399$
+bundled with awesome nVidia demos and a special Q3A level
+EXTREME overclockability
+Awesome PACKAGING!!!
+great driver support and rocksolid stability in games,i.e,IT IS AN nVIDIA
-Ti200 chip at 175/200,i.e,slower than a Radeon8500..unless o/c'ed

3)ATi Radeon 8500LE 64MB DDR - 405$
+clocked at 250/250,i.e,faster than any non o/c'ed GF3Ti200 out there
+I get Truform,tho' i don't know what good that does
+the best 2D & image quality around
-bundled with JACKSHIT..coz it is OEM..in other words I get nothing to show off
-shitty drivers and not totally 100% stable in all games,i.e,IT IS AN ATi

 

[Daemon_UK]

Get the Radeon LE 8500.

Then clock it to 290/290. Mine sure does that now.

However, some boards can't do this.

Hopefully better drivers will be released, to fully show the potential of the card.

Oh, and you'll be glad you went from a TNT2 to a Radeon. Everything is so much better.

/me is a former KYRO II owner, and teh RADEON 8500 LE blows it away, in every detail.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Both are great cards. They perform pretty similarly overclocked. Check out the features both have (most are pretty much the same) and decide which looks better to you.



<< me is a former KYRO II owner, and teh RADEON 8500 LE blows it away, in every detail. >>


of course the Radeon 8500 LE blows away the Kyro II! The GF3 does the same too!

About the GF4 Ti4200, don't hold your breath. You can get a GF3 Ti200 now for about $130 US.. the GF4 Ti4200 will be $199 US when it comes out, and isn't that much faster at all. Especially with a T-bird 1.4 GHz, you won't notice a difference from GF3 to GF4 at all (need closer to 2 GHz).

 

[Rand]

Definitely the R8500LE.
It's faster at stock clockspeeds, and both should be able to overclock by a respectable margin.
The R8500 though has HydraVision, and DVI Out by default, better FSAA, better 2D usually, a better feature set.
No contest, I'd choose the R8500 hands down over the Ti200.
If it was the Ti500 it would be a harder decision, but against the Ti200 I'd far and away prefer the R8500.