Why does my ATI 8500le suck???

[shuuuu]

I just purchased the 8500le from newegg a week ago. When I finally put it in my system (replacing my gf2), everything looked good up until I played counterstrike. I'm getting good FPS and the graphics look great, but it lags, my controls feel weird, and I can see the toolbar and the top bar in windows when I play instead of it being full screened CS. Also when I press ESC and try to return to the game, the screen is all messed up, like it's only showing the corner of the screen and I can't resume playing. I've tried all sorts of things such as messing around w/ some of the settings (AF, AA, trueform, etc). I downloaded the newest drivers, and tried using old drivers. Does anyone else get this problem or is it just me?

 

[minendo]

Did you install the HalfLife/ATI patch?

 

[jacktesterson]

I would say download the ATI patch as stated above

I run a 128MB Radeon 9100 (same as a 8500 LE) and I was amazed with how much performace comes out of a $90 cdn video card....we have a new budget champion

I run a 9700 pro in my other system....but for Counterstrike..that 9100 shouldnt lag at all at full settings

 

[jacktesterson]

please give us your specs and #'s of your PC

 

[Bilo86]

I also run the 8500 LE on a windows 2000 machine. I dont see any bad performance, UNTIL, I come out of a game such as Age Of The Empires 2 :Conquerors. When I come back to the desktop its all glowed up with neons. So everytime I come out of a game I have to go to Appearance/Windows Standard and just refresh the desktop unless I want to reboot. =/


is that ATI patch just for half life?

 

[sniperruff]

yes go DL the half life patch as everyone said. all these bugs in the 8500 made me spend $10 more for a GF3 Ti500 last year.

but yeah, both of these cards are not top-notch stuff anymore. i figure even a Ti4200 will play like crap in new games...

 

[shuuuu]

I just downloaded the patch (it's the overflow patch right?) Also to respond w/ the specs of my pc, they are as follow:

epox 8k7a
athlon xp 1700+ oced to 2400+
512mb pc2100 ram
ati sapphire 8500le 64mb
160 and 80 gb hard drives
turtle beach santa cruz
dvd and cdrw

Also after I use this fix...which drivers are best to use with this card? The newest ones from ATI or I saw someone say in a forum to use Omegadrive drivers? Now I gotta take out my gf2 again for the ati card. I'll let you guys know if it did the trick. Thanks for all the input.

 

[jsalpha2]

Not to spoil your day but some 9100's are better than others as far as RAM speed.
I am thinking Saphire uses 4ns? slow in some of their cards.

 

[mchammer187]

what version of cat are you using?

i dont remember having to use the HL patch when using newer version of the catalyst drivers

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: jsalpha2
Not to spoil your day but some 9100's are better than others as far as RAM speed.
I am thinking Saphire uses 4ns? slow in some of their cards.

Yep, the PowerColor I have is ass.

 

[shuuuu]

[double post]

 

[shuuuu]

The ATI/HL patch doesn't do anything but make things worse. I can't play games now, when I try to enter into a game, it just goes back to the desktop screen and HL is already closed. Any other advice? I'm about to format my C drive now to see if it'll do anything. If this fails, I'll probably just reinstall my gf2 card =(.

 

[Blooz1]

Sapphire built many different models of the 8500LE. I've got one (which came from NewEgg as an RMA replacement - long story!) which is rated at 250/183 - 5.5Ns ram! Needless to say, it's NOT in my "gaming" system!

NewEgg seems to just lump all the 8500's into two catagories - 64Mb and 128Mb, and pull for orders accordingly. People have ordered the same part # and gotten 275/275 cards, while others got the slow one I have!

My card still runs fine for everything but games, especially with the latest Cats. You could check the memory speed with Powerstrip or some other utility, and if it doesn't meet what described by NewEgg, you'd have grounds for a return.