ATI Name Game(?)

[GeneticWeapon]

I am already seeing on the web people who are getting ticked because they upgraded their video cards from ATI's 8500 to a 9100, and didnt realize that they were getting the same card, if not a slower card for more money. To the not to on top of things customer, how the hell are they supposed to know that ATI just renamed it's older(but good) technology?. It does seem fitting though that since the 8500, is better than the 9000, that it should hold a higher name/number to designate it's place in ATI's heirarchy. Especially in light of the fact that the overseas market is demanding high quantities of the 8500 still, and ATI has decided to continue producing it. I see it as being confusing, and as setting things straight, at the same time. People are just on their own unfortunately. Hopefully they will study up. It seems to me that people who save up, scrounge, and work hard for their money, are the people who know the differences. Because they have to. If I walked into my local electronics store right now, told him how much money I had, and asked him to point me towards the right video card for me, I would end up leaving with an MX440..or a Radeon 9000....this happens alot, I see it. I dont know about you folks, but the store that I go to(Fry's) has a freakin' WALL of video cards, and a sales staff that couldnt tell you what OpenGL is....(shaking head)..anyways...does anybody know what the official price of the 9100 is? or what the made by ATI 9100 core/memory speeds are?....will they make a bios to flash existing 8500 owners cards to read 9100??(valid question)...this is getting to the point of someone who does nothing but study video card news all day on their pc, can hardly keep up(not me...heh)...I love it all...thoughts please..

If someone with multiple personalities, threatens to commit suicide, is that a hostage situation?..xXZoomInstagibXx

 

[LancerEvolution7]

Yea, ATI is getting worst in their marketing sector. I don't like the way they keep lowering the clock speeds on the BBA Radeon 8500/le. If it was built by another company, then they can't take all the blame. But now they are selling retail BBA Radeon 8500LE clocked at 230/230. By the way, what is open gl? I know it has something to do with how games are displayed, but a full description would be nice.

 

[Ghostdog]

Renaming the 8500 to 9100 was a nice move from ATI, many people thought the 9000 would be a faster card than the 8500 and thus got the 9000 instead. If people want to spend money on products they don´t know about, then it serves them right upgrading to the same card they already own.

<font color=red>I´m starting to feel like a real computer consultant.</font color=red>

 

[ad_rach]

the people who are likely to fall for the numbering scams are the people who will never know they've been tricked anyway coz they do not follow the technology so they will never feel cheated.loads of companies thrive on the ignorance of their customers.just look at the original pentium 4 willamette-when that first came out it was slower than a lot of p3s but people still rushed to buy it coz of the number 4.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[vacs]

ad_rach, do you really think that if people don't notice that your are fooling them, then it's allright to fool them? What happened to the world we're living in? I desperately hope you are part of a very minuscule minority...

 

[ad_rach]

no.that's not what i'm saying.i'm sorry i made it look like i endorse that kind of thing. what i'm pointing out is the dilemma that we who are in the know face when with those who aren't.For example, one of my friends wanted to show me the new pc his parents had bought which they were delighted with.problem was that it was an athlon xp 2000 system with 256mb of PC100(!) sdram and some shitty tnt2 graphics card.They had paid about £800 for it.Of course i had to say that i thought it was a great buy and 'very cheap' etc. coz i didn't wanna make them feel bad about it.
As a result they were even happier with it as it had my approval coz they know that i know a fair bit about that sort of thing.
Who are we to make happy people feel bad?
What i am saying (granted i wasn't very clear on it) is that we need to educate such people BEFORE they make such mistakes otherwise they will never learn.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[Ghostdog]

I know exactly how you feel. A friend of mine recently bought a new PC and now wanted me to suggest a good graphics card-upgrade. Today I was over at his house taking a look at the new computer, it had an integrated GPU on a micro-ATX board with no AGP-slot. I felt a bit bad explaining to him and his brother what they would need to upgrade just to get a new GC.

<font color=red>I´m starting to feel like a real computer consultant.</font color=red>

 

[ad_rach]

yeah.one of my friends has a similar board- some really poor msi.he asked me why he couldn't play warcraft 3 on it.i said that it might have something to do with his shared 8mb trident blade graphics (oh dear) and no agp slot (the duron 1100 doesn't really help matters either).The problem is PCI graphics cards not only perform terribly, they are also often more expensive than equivalent agp ones coz they are so rare.
i would love to take a job in some big computer store and warn people off all the crap they sell

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[GeneticWeapon]

I agree with ad_rach in the fact that PCI cards are getting overwelmingly expensive, at my local electonics store, a tnt pci card costs $59 Dollars!, and it's the only pci model they sell....I've also seen them sell GeForce 4 MX AGP's for that price...I think they know that consumers who are looking to buy one of these cards, are stuck, and have dedicated on-board graphics, and will buy that one cheap tnt because they dont have any choice..

If someone with multiple personalities, threatens to commit suicide, is that a hostage situation?..xXZoomInstagibXx

 

[Crashman]

No they aren't, ATI doesn't make the LE.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[chuck232]

Yeah, they do. They used to make a R8500 Le128MB, and now a 64MB. I would know, I had a R8500Le 128MB BBA and my friend got a 64MB version during the boxing day sale. ($99CAD...)

<A HREF="http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/radeon8500le/index.html" target="_new">Here you go</A>

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Chuck232 on 01/17/03 11:03 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[phsstpok]

Every 9100 that I have seen listed is clocked at 250/230.

<b>99% is great, unless you are talking about system stability</b>

 

[GeneticWeapon]

Hey Ummm...Crashman, what the hell are talking about?..I just bought a BBA 8500LE 250/275 Default 3.3ns,(Big red box, with a Gladiators head on it)...<laughing>..when's the last time you were at ATI's website?...(ROFLMAO)...what drivers are you using??...heh...their on 3.0 now...HeHe

If someone with multiple personalities, threatens to commit suicide, is that a hostage situation?..xXZoomInstagibXx

 

[LancerEvolution7]

<A HREF="http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/radeon8500le/index.html" target="_new">http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/radeon8500le/index.html</A>
<A HREF="http://https://apps.ati.com/naorder/store_chs_product.asp" target="_new">http://https://apps.ati.com/naorder/store_chs_product.asp</A>

Click the above links and tell me they don't make the LE.

 

[Crashman]

I don't even think they make the 8500 any more, except for the 8500DV and AIW8500. Didn't you guys see the news that ATI wasn't making the 8500 series any more, only the chips for third party manufacturers and the AIW version? Dang, I think it was announce in October of last year!

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[chuck232]

Well, they don't manu the R8500/LE 128MB, but they've stil got the 64MB version of R8500LE.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...

 

[LancerEvolution7]

Maybe they really don't make them anymore..., they just sell 8500 and LE in BBA boxes .