which is the best card - 8500 or 8500le or nvidia ti4200

[Zine]

Hi,

I am about to upgrade my gf mx video card.

Which would be the better option?
8500le - 128mb
8500 - 128mb
Ti 4200 - 128mb

other than a lower clock rate & only having one video out put, what is the
difference between 8500 & 8500le?

thank you for your advise

Ian

 

[Dulanic]

Basically speed wise your looking at the 4200 coming out on top... the 8500 coming in 2nd and the 8500LE last... the LE just has a lower clock speed then the regular 8500. All 3 are good cards really, however right now I think the best bang for the buck is the MSI 4400 Champion Edition. Its only $20-30 more then a 128MB 4200.... but its a 4400... comes with a handful of games too. Was quite suprised, its a great deal, has alot of games, and is nothing but a PNY 4400.... its even purple hehe. Or the Leadtech comes in at $5 from newegg and has the big ass heatsink, and has free shipping for $190.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yup, if you can find a good price on a 4400 then great! You're certainly wise to dismiss the 64MB cards, and Rad9000 too for that matter.

As for your question, it really depends on your setup. With a decent CPU (Athlon 1.4ghz+) the GF4TI cards really pull ahead and are well worth the cost. At lower speeds the diffs are much smaller and the Rad8500/LE are a fair bit cheaper. The Rad8500LE is only about 10% slower than a Rad8500 but o/c's well, if the price diffs are more than 10% then I'd suggest the Rad8500LE over the Rad8500. If you do go Radeon then double check the clock speeds and abilities as these often change depending on whether the card is oem or retail and also depending upon the actual manu too.

If AA and high quality Aniso are high priorities then GF4TI is certainly the better choice but then Rad8500 offer better DVD playback and TVout if they are a higher priority.

 

[Orbius]

If money comes into the equation the $89 ATi Radeon 8500 at Newegg.com is hard to beat. Comes with 3.3ns ram and is clocked at 250/275. Personally I don't think 128mb ram cards are worth it since the ram on them always tends to be slower.

 

[BFG10K]

I'd probably take the Radeon 8500 128 MB. The newest drivers make it beat a Ti4200 in a lot of cases plus you get better DVD quality and 128 tap anisotropic at only a tiny performance hit.

 

[Vidclone]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
I'd probably take the Radeon 8500 128 MB. The newest drivers make it beat a Ti4200 in a lot of cases plus you get better DVD quality and 128 tap anisotropic at only a tiny performance hit.

NO it doesn?t ....coff coff Detonators 40's are out and now the Geforce4Ti4200 wipes the floor with the 8500 card
overclock the Ti4200 and you have something between the 4400 and 4600 running cool and stable ! cant go wrong in the long run it will last longer ! ..the ATI8500 is to dated !

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yeah the Rad8500 cards are very good and in the US and Canada where they are very well priced they are good bargains. However they do taper out whereas GF4TI cards continue to improve with the fastest CPUs. The Rad8500 isn't hugely slower than GF4TI4200 but the Rad8500 hardly o/c's at all while the 4200 cards o/c to 4400 or 4600 speeds, and that is quite a diff. BFG10K I rem you saying that Rad8500 with the latest drivers can beat the GF4TI4600, I'd like to some proof of that. Rad8500 is a good card but lets keep things in perspective.

DVD quality on any moderately recent CPU (600mhz+) is largely irrelevant and it's certainly not a huge priority for the vast majority of consumers anyway. As for Aniso although Rad8500 take half the hit of GF3/GF4TI ther quality is noticably inferior, even Rad8500 with 16tap Aniso is largely inferior to GF3/GF4TI's 2xAniso. If you like Aniso or AA (something the Rad8500 REALLY sucks at) then GF3 or GF4TI are certainly the ways to go, unless you can afford the magnificent Rad9700 that is!

As for 128MB vs 64MB. It is only the GF4TI4200 cards which tend to differ in clock speeds and RAM type used, even then the lower clocked, slower RAM and lower o/c'ed 4200-128MB is definitely the better buy. Some current games and most new games will hit 64MB cards VERY hard and it is not a good compromise to make when buying a new card. Just as an example in the current game Commanche4 a 4200-64MB clocked at 300/600 only gives perf equal to a 4200-128MB at STOCK speed (250/444) and nearly all 4200-128MB reach 300/550 type speeds making them MUCH faster than 4200-64MB. Even when taking the standard clocks in to account the 4200-64MB at 250/500 is only 2-3% faster than 4200-128MB at 250/444 despite the 13% extra RAM speed. When a 4200-128MB is clocked to 250/500 (4200-64MB speeds) it gains more than 10% perf. Radeon cards gain even more with 128MB which is evident with the Rad8500LE-128MB equalling the Rad8500 64MB despite the LE being clocked 10% LOWER in both core and RAM! 64MB really makes no sense on a new card unless you have to settle for the likes of GF4MX or Rad7500/9000. Here's alink outlining the diffs between 128MB and 64MB:

AnAndTech 4200 64MB vs 128MB