Radeon 8500 OEM from Accubyte.com, My thoghts...

[Bagheera]

Received my new Radeon 8500 OEM from Accubyte.com on Saturday. Opened the package and found the slot panel is bent. Bent it back with a pliar, installed it, and found all 3D application to be plagued by enormous amount of artifacts. I tried everything from installing the recommended driver, the neest driver with SMOOTHVISION, reformat, tweaking with Rage3D Tweak, changing every configuration possible... nothing worked.

After struggling with it trying to get the card to work for 2 days I gave up. Took the card out, and to my amazement found the DVI connector on the back already scratched-someone had hooked it up to an LCD before, apprantly.

I think the whole thing was a rip off. The card appear to be a refurbished product. Accubyte never had anything cheap and damn I was wondering how they got their Radeon 8500 to be as cheap as $189.99.

RMA RMA RMA RMA... >_<

 

[Bovinicus]

Sorry to hear about that. I just got a Radeon 8500 myself. I love the card. I did have one problem with Counter-Strike, but it was solved with a patch. Anyway, there are many places you can find a Radeon 8500LE for under $200. Go to www.pricewatch.com to find more. By the way, the LE is the same thing as the OEM version.

 

[Bagheera]

Yeah, but Radeon 8500 LE is supposedly running at 250MHZ, right? Guess what I found out when I checked my clock?

230MHZ.

I don't know what was going on, but either someone knew that core was jacked up and set the clock lower than normal or what... >_<

 

[Burtomat]

Just a suggestion for online shopping in the future to avoid RMAs...

I use www.resellerratings.com to check on vendors before I buy stuff. Just a suggestion.

 

[Mavrick007]

<< Yeah, but Radeon 8500 LE is supposedly running at 250MHZ, right? Guess what I found out when I checked my clock?

230MHZ.

I don't know what was going on, but either someone knew that core was jacked up and set the clock lower than normal or what... >_< >>



No, Radeon 8500 LE is clocked at 230/230, while the OEM at 250/250 and the Retail at 275/275. Instead of an OEM which you thought you received, you must have the LE.

 

[saltedeggman]

Nono,

some LE are clocked at 250/250
read this..althought the site is down because of database problem

 

[Bagheera]

Accubyte said their Radeon 8500 were OEMs. They didn't mention anything about LE at all. The only reason I know was because I installed the newest ATI driver and it reported it being an LE.

And thanks very much for the link, Burtomat! I am considering ordering a Retail Radeon this time... After I get my refund grrrr (Accubyte ripped $16 shipping + $30 restocking=$50 off of me.)

 

[saltedeggman]

why don't you try and overclock it??

the link i post above can tell you how to overclock it....

 

[Bagheera]

Oh but I did overclock it.

You see, the point is, I already had enormous rendering artifacts running t 230MHZ. After I clocked it to 250mhz it got worse...

 

[Foundation]

damn, sorry to hear that

accubytes SUCK

 

[Bagheera]

Yeah, I figured... Did you know that when I tried to ring their RMA department they gave me a busy signal for 20 minutes straight? Dang, and no call waiting? @_O I was late for two classes because of that. Damn. Luckily I managed to get an RMA number assigned to me an hour before they closed.

I was in a rush to get it returned because it took Accubyte a whole damn freaking week to get that package to me and the shipment arrived on a Saturday and Accubyte is not open on weekends which gave me only 4 days left to return the card before I lose my refund.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

I saw some Radeon 8500 OEM with sticker "8500LE 250/250 made in Canada".