Should I go with the 8500 or the 9000Pro?

[magomago]

I'm building a PC and i'm on a tight budget...

Now the reason I omitted a Geforce is that the g4tis are still qite expensive for how old they are...

And if I considerd the MX series I might as well get hte 9kpro

But should I get one or the other, or should I wait for the GFX/ATI's new cards to come out and then enjoy the cards at a much cheaper price?

B/c I would be willing to wait a few weeks with a geforce2 in my rig

 

[AnAndAustin]

Without a doubt the 8500 series even the marginally slower 8500LE is faster and better than the 9000PRO and the std 9000 is not a good thing at all. The 9000 series is simply a cut-down cheaper to produce 8500 (GF4MX style naming unfortunately) so if you can find an 8500, ideally with 128MB then snatch it up ... for reference an 8500LE-128MB is a much better idea than an 8500-64MB. If you can afford a little more then the GF4TI4200 is great value, not that the 8500 is at all slow of course!

I'd certainly take the Rad9000PRO over a GF4MX, the GF3 have their downsides although if you're happy with the non-3D aspects of your GF2 they're still a good idea, but it is really a matter of 8500 or 4200 IMHO so see what the price diffs are like. You won't have to look far on these forums for links to benchmarks and reviews.

 

[rogue1979]

Radeon 8500LE, just make sure you don't get one clocked at 250/230, it has crappy ram. I got an LE clocked at 250/250 at newegg a few months ago and it ran 300/315. They are about $70 shipped on pricewatch.

 

[sandorski]

Re: Radeon 8500 LE

Before deciding on one of these, absolutlely make sure to know the GPU/Mem speeds. LE's range from 250/250, 230/230, to 250/200(this is what I got). There is *no* standard speed for these cards, so getting one is somewhat of a crapshoot. If I was to choose over again, I would buy the 9000Pro, at least then I would know what I was getting.

 

[NEVERwinter]

get a 8500LE 128MB, clocked at 250/250.