Radeon 8500: OEM vs Retail

[Spike]

Wait, if the 230mhz version has 3.6ns ram, can't it be overclocked fairly easily? or am I missing something

 

[FreakyGuy]

The core is clocked at 230mhz. The memory speed has nothing to do with how fast the core can go. Usually you have to overclock both the core and memory synchronous for it to be stable.

 

[Spike]

I know that the GPU and RAM are clocked together (250 core means 500mhz ram and 275 core means 550 ram) As I understand it, with the 4ns ram and a 250mhz core, you are actually overclocking the ram slightly to get the core to 275mhz but with 3.6ns ram you are not actually overclocking it, but instead just taking it up to where it should be. I was just wondering if the 230 mhz version just has a underclocked GPU/RAM and is otherwise the exact same

 

[FreakyGuy]

It has a slower clocked GPU which some Japanese companies got a hold of somehow. Speculation is that it's either a Japanese OEM GPU meant to be 230 or rejects that couldn't hit the higher speeds.

 

[SsZERO]

It seems to me that the radeons equipped with 3.6ns ram are capable of operating at the retail specs of 275/275. ATI did manufacture two versions of the card, the oem version having 4.0ns memory while the retail version came with 3.6ns memory. Since ATI was selling off so many OEM cards, ATI supplemented the production of OEM cards by taking full retail cards and flashing them with the OEM bios, which reduced their default speeds to 250/250. I have also heard of cards clocked at 230, though by official specs the LE/OEM is supposed to be 250 and the retail is 275.

-= SsZERO =-

 

[Spike]

Has anyone been able to actually overclock the 230mhz version of the Radeon 8500? How about with a card specifically from Newegg? I guess I can just wait to check the card when I get it, but I am still curious

 

[UncleWai]

people can't o/c the card. ati did some thing fishy and made those cards not o/c well.

 

[Spike]

You think you could expand a little on the whole "fishy" thing? I am curious as to exatly what ATI did to the cards

 

[FreakyGuy]

If you check out my link in my above post Retail cards have a Vmem of 3.50 volts, while many OEM cards have a Vmem of only 3.15 volts.

 

[Spike]

yah, I read the article. somehow it gave me the impression that if you have the 3.6ns ram on the card, then chances are it has 3.5v. I am actually looking for any specific examples people have with the Newegg products. I hope mine is a 250....

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

i want a retail 8500. anyone want to trade or sell it to me? check my for sell in my signiature.

 

[Spike]

Screw it, I am going to RMA this peice of crap 230mhz version and buy a retail, I have seen them online for $230, I guess I can afford that.... thanks guys for the help

 

[AnMig]

I also chickened out and bought the retail 8500 since the prevailing consensus is that OEM and Retail have diiferent hardware (capacitor/bios).
Most of the oem I believe have there vmem voltages lowered to try to prevent it from reaching retail functionality. Pretty smart move by ati made a bunch of people buy retail by just changing a capacitor.

Changing capacitors to attain 3.5 volts (retail vmem) (or was it resistors I forgot)was way over my head so I settled for retail. There are oem version that do not have this lowered vmem issue. But I think the newer oems have this problem that is why a lot of oem owners do not attain retail speed or retail overclocking speed despite flashing there bios to retail.

One day I will learn to solder


peace

 

[Mustanggt]

I think what Ati did with this oem ,le retail ,powermagic is bs who can make heads or tails of it. so i just spent the extra $20 and play it safe with retail version.

 

[Freewolf]

You can also go to www.rageunderground.com to find more on this subject.(rage3d seems to be down by the way)