Radeon 7500 GPU?

[rogue1979]

Is a Radeon 7500 GPU a faster version of the original Radeon or a Radeon 8500 GPU with features disabled? Thanks

 

[Hanpan]

It is basically a very close derivative of the first radeon core in the same way the 9000 is a derivative of the 8500 core.

 

[rogue1979]

Just wondering if the 7500 will be as compatible as the Radeon 32MB DDR. I have two original Radeons running well with the 9050 driver, they play all games perfectly, no glitches. I bought a Radeon 8500LE from newegg and was plagued with glitches and problems. It was a nice card and fast, but I could not get it running correctly. The 7500 should be a nice upgrade from the 32MB DDR, but will it be compatible like the original 32MB DDR or problematic like the 8500?

 

[aswedc]

The 7500 is the same core as the original Radeon, the only difference is in speed.

 

[MithShrike]

Yup 7500 is a overclocked Radeon. Anyways, ATI's numbering scheme had to do with the version of Direct X supported. The 7500=DirectX 7 and 8500=DirectX 8/8.1 and the 9000=DirectX 8.1(silly I know), and you guessed it the 9700=Direct X 9. Well, there ya go.

 

[rogue1979]

Thanks guys. I'm gonna go find me a retail 7500 with 4ns ram and overclock the snot out of it. Do all retail box Radeon 7500's come with 4ns rated ram? I really have good results with the original Radeons and the new 9050 drivers, at 185/185 they seem to be keeping pace with my Geforce Pro at 240/470, or very close. From what I have seen the retail 7500 is easily reaching 300/520. I think the reason the original Radeon is playing real world games as well as the Geforce Pro is because the Geforce2 chipset drivers do not allow any HSR, while all Radeons support this. Of couse in benchmarks the Geforce Pro looks faster, but playing Mech4, Need for Speed 5 and some heavy duty flight simulators, HSR keeps framerates moving smoothly when the graphics get intense. I wonder why Nvidia doesn't allow HSR support for the Geforce2 chipset? Must be one of those marketing schemes to make everyone upgrade.

 

[BFG10K]

For $99 a Radeon 8500LE would be a much better choice.

 

[Cadaver]

I've got a Radeon 7500 in my 2.0GHz P4 Dell Optiplex 240 (PC133 RAM, yuck) machine at work, and it overclocks a reasonable amount without any extra cooling. I'm not at work now, so I can't check exactly what speed it's running at now, but I do know I was pleasantly suprised at what it would handle.

Didn't buy it for games, but for 2D and dual-head function. However, when working late and needing a break, it does quite respectably on Jedi Knight II.

 

[rbV5]

The 7500 is the same core as the original Radeon, the only difference is in speed.

Not quite, it is the RV200 chip, it has an integrated Rage Theater in the core and an improved memory controller. The performance is closer to a GF2 Ultra, but BFG10K is absolutely correct, skip the 7500...the 8500 is a MUCH better price/performance in any form. No reason you can't get any 8500 set up properly.

 

[rogue1979]

Yes, I know about the Radeon 8500 being a good choice. I bought one for $99 from newegg already. I had all kinds of problems with it, and finally sent it back. I worked on it for the better part of a week, reformatting, flashing the bios, trying 3 different drivers as well as every setting in my bios. It was glitchy, maybe the card itself was faulty, but after searching the forums and seeing other people having similar problems, I just had enough. I envy you guys that have one running well, wish I could have gotten better results. That is why I am researching the Radeon 7500. I have two Radeon 32MB DDR's here running perfectly, the driver support is better than my Gainward Geforce Pro 450. While the Nvidia card runs pretty flawlessly in most of my games, it cannot play Mech Commander 2 or Moto Racer 2 properly. Also in Janes WW2 I cannot use FSAA without major glitches. The original Radeons with the 9050 driver handles everything I have thrown at it without a single glitch.

 

[rbV5]

The 7500 is a good card, I'm using an AIW 7500 myself. I certainly can't gripe about gaming either, performance on my rig is excellent on all counts.

That said, you are just as likely to get a 7500 card that gives you fits as well. They have sold a ton of 8500's in the past year, the vast majority of them are trouble free(probably more so with "built by", than "powered by" though). Remember that most folks only post with problems, and lots of problem posts usually mean lots of sales rather than troubled hardware.