oem radeon 8500 vs retail 8500 vs retail 7500? which one?

[spanky]

newegg has a few 8500 refurbs at their website now. they do not say its the le, so i assume its the vanilla 8500. the thing is... they say the core is clocked at 250mhz. i thought the core on the vanilla radeon was 275mhz (according to anand's review)? i looked for the non-refurb 8500 on their site, but i could not find it. i found the 8500 le tho, and they said the core on that sucker is 230mhz. so what is the core clock speed on the 8500? and the refurb 8500 in newegg's refurb section for $139... is that a stock 8500 or 8500le? either way... i want it... but would just like to know what i would be getting. any input would be greatly appreciated. thanx!


-spanky

EDIT: ok.. i figured it out. this 8500 was prolly oem'ed by another manufacturer (not made by ati). now my question is... how much of a performance hit will i be taking by have my mem/core clock speed lowered by 25mhz? value wise, would i be better off getting a radeon 7500? or should i just o/c the oem 8500?

 

[nitrousninja]

The retail 8500 is the one at 275Mhz. OEM is at 250 and the LE I think is at 230. Go for the retail! I hope this helps.

 

[spanky]

<< The retail 8500 is the one at 275Mhz. OEM is at 250 and the LE I think is at 230. Go for the retail! I hope this helps. >>




bleh.... newegg does not have the retail 8500 in their refurb section. they don't seem to have the retail 8500 in their new section either. think $140 for the oem radeon is a good deal?

 

[Killrose]

$140 is a decent deal even for an OEM. Would be nice to know if it had 3.6ns ram though. The volt mod is easy to do, and i have'nt heard of any that could not do 275/275 after being done correctly.

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

I think the more common references are as follows
Retail=275
LE=250
LELE=230

 

[alisajid]

I was really hyped up about the NewEgg refurb deal, till I checked Pricewatch. Retail 8500s can be bought for about ~$159. That makes the decision that much harder.

 

[spanky]

<< I think the more common references are as follows
Retail=275
LE=250
LELE=230 >>




whats a "LELE"? i been scouring the net for info the past half hour and what i got was the oems = 250 and le's = 230. is that right or....?

 

[spanky]

<< I was really hyped up about the NewEgg refurb deal, till I checked Pricewatch. Retail 8500s can be bought for about ~$159. That makes the decision that much harder. >>




the thing that i like about newegg is the refurbs have free shipping. the thing about pricewtch is that they give a low price, then rape u on shipping. btw, i just went to check out one of the first vendors that came up on pricewatch when seraching for the retail radeon 8500... shipping was surprisingly reasonable @ $13.21 (the place is from ny and i am in nj). yes... tough indeed. but being a cheap bastard... i will prolly stick with the oem from newegg. btw... anyone know what the performance difference between the retail and oem 8500's are? is it huge or pretty small?

 

[Killrose]

Sharkey Extreme did a reveiw of the 7500 and 8500 against current competiton, and they lowered the clock of the retail 8500 to 250/250 to show where the OEM would be in the mix. It did'nt do badly.

I think LeLe is the 230/230, but who knows...

 

[alisajid]

I'm not sure, but in terms of OC'ing potential the retail boards come with better RAM (~3.6ns).

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

Spanky
OEM cards are kind of a crapshoot. some overclock great, some not at all.
I just sent back a OEM radeon 7500 because if you o/c the memory 1mhz, it gave bad atrifacts, which means the memory was already at its limit. it also did not perform very well either.

 

[spanky]

<< Spanky
OEM cards are kind of a crapshoot. some overclock great, some not at all.
I just sent back a OEM radeon 7500 because if you o/c the memory 1mhz, it gave bad atrifacts, which means the memory was already at its limit. it also did not perform very well either. >>



ACK! who was the manufacturer? i'll be sure to avoid at all cost

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

it was made by power color. it was the "evil master" 7500 ultra.

I went with the $90 ATI built 7500 from newegg. I should get it monday.

The 7500 is a good card,it plays all my games with no problems ( CS, UT) but it is not in the same league as a 8500.

Here is how I buy video cards.....mainly because i`m cheap and can`t justify spending all the $$ on the latest and greatest, and those cards play games just fine.

I like to buy 1 to 2 generations behind. when the radeon DDR came out, I got the Radeon LE moving up from a GeForce2 MX. now the 7500 and 8500 are out and another card due out in March, i`m moving up to a 7500. I then sell the oldest card I was using as a backup and the cost to upgrade becomes much lower.

 

[rbV5]

Newegg's price for the ATI Retail 8500 is now $168, thats the one you want, they're OOS right now, but they get new stock all the time. You can have them auto notify you when it comes in. Looks like the prices on the Retail ATI cards are dropping in anticipation of the new cards coming up.

Myself, I went with the AIW 7500.

 

[spanky]

<< Newegg's price for the ATI Retail 8500 is now $168, thats the one you want, they're OOS right now, but they get new stock all the time. You can have them auto notify you when it comes in. Looks like the prices on the Retail ATI cards are dropping in anticipation of the new cards coming up.

Myself, I went with the AIW 7500. >>




say shipping is $5 for the retail 8500... is it worth the extra $35?

 

[rbV5]

<< say shipping is $5 for the retail 8500... is it worth the extra $35? >>



Shipping is $8 for the retail, the oem is 166 + 5 shipping(this is not an ATI card)

IMHO, yea its worth $38 more than the refurbished model (30 day warranty, non ATI card, barebone)
And yea, its worth $3 more than the oem model (non ATI card 230/230 vs 275/275)

Looks to me like the 8500 retail may be the price/performance card to get right now.