Radeon 8500 best bang for my buck?

[nardvark]

I currently run on an ATI Radeon 32 MB DDR, and was thinking of upgrading my video card. I use it for gaming and DVD playback, with the possibility in the near future of using TV-out with DVD playback. I've been real pleased with the Radeon's DVD playback and image quality, as well as the drivers and other associated variables. I've never owned a NVIDIA card, and I've always been partial to ATI's style, so I was thinking of getting a Radeon 8500, or perhaps a Radeon 8500LE.
Has anyone compared the 8500 and 8500LE that could give me an overall speed comparison? I'm less interested in an article with a bunch of benchmarks and more interested with people who have actually used both and could give a first-hand account of real life performance.
Also, I saw a Radeon 8500LE BULK from Newegg that looked like a sweet deal, but I was wondering if anyone knows what the BULK shipments lack (cables, manuals, warranties, etc...)?
Also, I realize I'm opening a giant opinion bomb here, but do you think the Radeon 8500 will be the best bang for my buck? Or would I be better off going with a low-end GeForce4? (I'm definitely in the sub-200 market).
Thanks in advance,
nardvark

 

[Actaeon]

Both give about equal Bang to Buck ratio (If that ratio exists).

Radeon8500 = cheaper
Geforce4Ti 4200 = Faster

Simple as that, Personally, I would go for the Ti4200 unless you are on a tight budget.
The Geforce4 will last longer than the Radeon...

I suggest checking out Anandtech's article on Unreal Tournament 2003, notice the speed differences between the Ti4200 and Radeon, and decide whats best for you.

Hope I helped!
Actaeon

 

[Actaeon]

Ah, I forgot.

Welcome to Anandtech

Heres a link to that article by the way.

Enjoy.
Actaeon

 

[nardvark]

Ha ha, yea, I already read the article, I've been reading Anandtech for a long time, I just never wandered into the jungle that is the forums...The Radeon basically got destroyed by the Ti4200. However, I'm almost never playing the newest FPS's, I mostly stick to Blizzard stuff, and I've had a copy of Warcraft III for a while, and it lags noticably if I've got all the detail settings cranked to their highest and there are more than 30 units on the screen.
Any word on the characteristics of that bulk LE from anyone?

 

[nardvark]

Oh never mind, it looks like the only ATI Radeon 8500 card I wouldn't be scared to buy on newegg is the 128 mb Retail for 162.
anyone else recommend a vendor besides newegg or googlegear?

 

[Plester]

the 64mb 8500LE from newegg is the deal of the century for 8500 boards. they come with 3.3ns hynix ddr and are clocked at 250/275. if i was in your shoes, i wouldn't spend over $100 on a video card. the power of a GF3 or 8500LE is MORE than enough for the forseable future for most gamer's needs. the LE is $98 shipped from newegg. you can also look on the FS/FT forum here and grab a GF3 for $85-$90, which also qualifies as huge bang for the buck. a Ti200 card at stock speeds is a tad slower than the 8500, but they all overclock to close to Ti500 levels so you can ramp em up to or past 8500 performance levels and they have the edge in game compatability.

 

[nardvark]

I'm just a bit wary of the OEM boards that have non-functional parts (in this case the VGA-DVI). Also, I've been getting a very strong opinion that it's much better to buy a Built by ATI retail board than a Powered by ATI OEM board. I've seen some other benchmarks and the retail ATI's tend to be noticeably more powerful.
At this point I guess I'd ask if anyone could supply a good reason to buy a Radeon 8500 128MB over a GeForce4 Ti4200. Seems like they're pretty similarly priced, and the G4 is definitely faster...I haven't seen anything on image quality though.

 

[Rand]

It sounds like the R8500 would definitely be a better match for your needs then the GF4 Ti.
ATi's got superior TV-Out capabilities, and the industry's best DVD playback.
In most current games it's only slightly slower then the GF4 Ti4200, but as evidenced by UT2003, it'll probably start to fall a bit further behind in games a year from now.
UT2003 is probably an unusually bad scenario for the R8500 though, as the game is supposed to be optimized specifically for the R8500.

As for visual quality, ATi is pretty much widely regarded as offering superior 2D visual quality. nVidia's has a rather poor reputation in that regard, though some nVidia board manufacturers are better then others.

3D visual quality is debateable, on a personal level I'd say their pretty much comparable. Some games tend to look slightly better on nVidia, while other games look a bit better on ATi.
nVidia anisotropic filtering does offer better image quality then ATi's however, ATi has the benefit of offering higher performing anisotropic filtering though.
On the flip side of things, ATi's FSAA implementation offers superior image quality to that of nVidia's, while nVidia's FSAA implementation performs better.

Given that TV-Out and DVD are important factors for you, and you've stated that you don't typically play the latest and greatest FPS's then the R8500 definitely seems a better match for your needs.

Another vote for the $98 R8500LE though... clocked at 275/275 it performs virtually identically to ATi's retail board, and with 3.3ns DDR RAM it tends to overclock very well also.