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ATI 8500 / Herc 8500LE / PC 7500 Evil Master

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  • Graphics Cards
  • ATI
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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February 5, 2002 1:55:42 PM

Hello...
I'm vid card shopping and I've happened into a bit of a conundrum.

I can get a white box ATI 8500 for around $180 now.
I can get a retail Hercules 8500LE for around $165 in a month.
I can get a retail PowerColor 7500 for around $100 now.

The reasonable choice would, of course, be the 7500. It has good speed, pretty good drivers, and it's fully supported in XFree86 4.2.0 (I dual boot between Slackware 8 and Win2k). I could also order it today, if I wanted. Now, the 8500 has 2D only support in XFree86 4.2.0 but I'm sure that will change as a little time goes on. I could always play games in Win2k, so that's not a horrible issue.

I guess the major issue would have to be the quality of the Hercules card. Does it have DVI/VGA/TV out? Does it have the dongle? What is the clock speeds? Etc... I saw a couple pictures throught an Anandtech link, but I can't find it anymore. There weren't any specs, though.
JJ

More about : ati 8500 herc 8500le 7500 evil master

February 5, 2002 3:00:43 PM

8500LE's are Retail 8500's with slower RAM and a 250/250 clock speed. Retail 8500's have 275/275 clock speeds. The Hercules card should be more or less the same as ATI's LE but maybe some special features or something......
Anyway I say go for the Retail 8500, it is the Equal to a Geforce 3 TI500 whereas the 7500 is the equal to the Geforce 2 Ultra. I'm sure the 8500 would be supported in XFree86 if it supports the 7500?? But then again I could be wrong.

<A HREF="http://gamershq.madonion.com/compare2k1.shtml?2600992" target="_new"> 3DMark 2001 Score </A>
February 5, 2002 3:33:53 PM

The RAM of the 8500LE would be slower, like 5.5ns slower, or just clocked slower? I read that some OEM's were using 5.5ns RAM instead of 3.6ns. I saw that PowerCooler is making two Evil Master II's on the 8500LE. The main reason that I ask about the Her is because it's listed on Pricewatch as dvi/vga dual head but it's only $165. That's less than a white box 8500 and if it's just a clock difference then Her would be an easy choice. If it's a RAM speed issue, though, then it wouldn't be a wise choice.

Sure, you can say "go for the retail 8500" but I'm not going to spend that much for a video card. I don't want to spend >$100 but I'm definately not going to spend >$200.

As far as X is concerned, from what I've read, 4.2.0 has 2d/3d support for the 7500 but only 2d support for the 8500. I assume that it has to do with pixel/vertex shading and maybe the pipelines, since that's the main difference between the two cards.
JJ
February 5, 2002 5:37:23 PM

Oh, my bad...
I didn't realize there was that big of a difference in RAM speeds per card. I just thought it was 4ns and 5.5ns. The link that you said says that it doesn't include a DVI connector. Would that be the dvi/vga dongle or the actual dvi connector?
Hehehe...
February 5, 2002 6:55:12 PM

I ended up getting the 7500 listed at NewEgg. It is supposed to be 250/230 with 4ns RAM. At $96 + $0 s/h I couldn't pass it up. Beefy goodness for <$100. I was really thinking about your 8500 but with shipping it was almost exactly 2x the price.
Thanks for the help, though.
JJ
February 5, 2002 7:18:31 PM

The Radeon 7500 should be powerful enough fora most games. Guess I shoulda mentioned that...but if you are a freak like me, then ya gotta have a good card, so I'm getting the 8500. :) 
Hey I think I got a good signature for myself...."I'm a freak!" yeh thats it.....er maybe not........

<A HREF="http://gamershq.madonion.com/compare2k1.shtml?2600992" target="_new"> 3DMark 2001 Score </A>
February 5, 2002 7:22:32 PM

Yeah...
I know that the 7500 is plenty for games, now. I guess I knew, all along which card I *should* buy, but I really wanted the 8500.
Hehehe...

At <$100 I can afford to buy a new haus in a year or two.
February 5, 2002 8:36:52 PM

haus?

8500's are equal to TI500's and for only $20-$30 more then most TI200's who WOULDN'T want one? Unless they are Pro-Nvidia, or rich..........I just want a good card for less then $200.....

<A HREF="http://gamershq.madonion.com/compare2k1.shtml?2600992" target="_new"> 3DMark 2001 Score </A>
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