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Which Video Card for Moderate Gaming? Im on a budget - Radeon 9100 or 8500LE?

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phatj

Golden Member
I like to game a little. I have the choice of the following video cards to put in my new computer:
Sapphire Radeon 8500LE
Sapphire Radeon 9100

Both 128mb. I dont really want to overclock the card... which would be best for gaming (I play Jedi Academy, Homeworld, Freedom Fighters, etc..)
 
If budget is your concern, try going for a G4 Ti4200 128MB. Not an ATI guy so I can't really suggest a better card....maybe an 8500?
 
Could you possibly wait for faster\cheaper cards? Even a 4200 is going to struggle in newer games. I'm about ready to toss my 4600 in my Dad's PC and get a Radeon 9700/9800 for playing Halo\Doom III and maybe HL2.
 
I do play newer games, but My budget is pretty low. Like below $90. I have an ati 64mb Radeon 7000, and it doesn't perform in games like Freedom Fighters, Jedi Academy, Homeworld 2, etc.

I'm sure there's a sub $90 video card that can play those games well in 1024x768. I'm not aiming to play Doom 3 or Half Life 2 any time soon anyway.
 
For $90, either a Radeon 8500 or a GF4 Ti4200 (64 or 128) would be the best out there IMO.
 
Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
For $90, either a Radeon 8500 or a GF4 Ti4200 (64 or 128) would be the best out there IMO.
Click to expand...

agreed. both those cards are better than the 9200 and the fx5200
 
The 8500 I am looking at can run at only 4x agp. Would I be better off getting a card using 8x agp?
 
Originally posted by: phatj
The 8500 I am looking at can run at only 4x agp. Would I be better off getting a card using 8x agp?
Click to expand...

The 8x is only a marginal increase. A 9100 is new revision of the 8500 also, in case you find one of them cheap.
 
RADEON 8500LE and Sapphire OEM RADEON 9100 128MB DDR
are both within my budget. Which one? More people seem to like the 8500, but if the 9100 is a revised edition of the 8500, wouldn't I be better off with the 9100?
 
Well, I have both a 8500 and a 9100, but I can't remember the exact scores. Anyway, I found a bench on an Italian site, and a 9500 (non-pro) got 10,344 in 3dmark01 and the 9100 on the same system got 8,455. Does that help ?
 
the 8500LE is a basically a lower clocked version of the regular 8500. The 8500 and the 9100 are virtually the same card (although there are also variations of the 9100).
 
Have to agree, pop the budget up a little and get the 4200. It wont be great on those games...but it'll do for now. You might just wanna wait till prices come down a little.
 
im pretty sure 9100 and 8500LE's are the same EXACT thing try to find out the clock speeds of both of the cards because these models both vary so find out and pick the faster one.
 
Originally posted by: JBTele
im pretty sure 9100 and 8500LE's are the same EXACT thing try to find out the clock speeds of both of the cards because these models both vary so find out and pick the faster one.
Click to expand...

OK, I have both a 9100 and a regular 8500 I used powerstrip 3.45 on both. The 8500 runs 274/274 core/mem, and the 9100 (ATI brand) runs 250/250. The 8500 is in a XP2100 and the 9100 is on a XP2400. I ran 3dmark01 on both and the 8500 got 8574 and the 9100 got 8749 (faster cpu though). I think you will find that a REAL 9100 (ATI or good mfg) will stay right up there with a REAL 8500, NOT the LE which is slower. These are both 128 meg cards. These also both ran on Windows 2000 and directx 9 (the 8500 on 9.0b and the 9100 on 9.0a) They also show up in dxdiag as the same ramdac 8500 series.

 
GF4 Ti4200 if it's an option.

Otherwise, 8500 and 9100 are pretty much the same card. I flashed my 8500LE to a 9100 then back again. Go for whichever one has a higher clock speed.
 
Homeworl 2? Heh If you see the reviews even the 9800xt is getting like 50 fps in that game

I'd say get a ti 4200 for ~100 which seems to be just 10 above your budget but it'll whoop the 8500le/9100
 
I can tell you that I had an 8500LE, and I had a lot of problems updating the drivers. I've never had a problem with nVidia drivers, so I'd recommend the 4200 as well.
 
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