<< Thanks for the response, I just wasnt sure if ATI was doing the clock speed thing again, but apparently they are...and what on earth is the 8500 LE that newegg is selling....? >>
Technically their not doing the clockspeed game with the Radeon 8500, as all OEM R8500 chips sold by ATi are branded as the Radeon 8500LE to differentiate with the faster clocked retail 8500. Unfortunately, some vendors are disregarding that and simply calling it a Radeon 8500 and omitting the "LE" .
The R8500 is extremely overclockable though, and many people have the OEM R8500 running up to and over 300/300.