ATI Radeon 8500LE vs. NVidia Riva TNT2 Model 64

[Ghostdog]

Sad, but true. I have a NVidia Riva TNT2 (please don´t laugh at me).
The cards been working just fine, except for the fact that newer Detonator XP drivers mess up some games.
It´s time to upgrade, and the product of my choice is a Radeon 8500LE with 128 MBs of DDR memory. Made by Club 3D. Affordable, yet competing with the GF3 TI series.
What do you guys (and girls) think about the Radeon 8500?

I been reading the Graphics Card guides for some tips and it seems that the difference in framerate (and features) will be sicnificant. But will the diffrence in overall gameplay be that big? Obviously the features of the R8500 chip will look nice in games, but still... performance, speed?

It would also be nice to hear some oppinions about Club 3D as a graphics card manufacturer. Or is Hercules way better?

 

[sturm]

never heard of club 3d. but if its like the mad dog line of video cards ive seen, they use the ati chips and everything just like ATI does. the only thing ive heard is that the non ATI cards are not as overclockable as a true ATI. u will see a difference in framrates. i have an older rivia tnt 16 meg in old computer and a ati radeon 64 ddr( not 8500 ) can run unreal tournament without frame drops at 1600x1200 32 bits, could barely do 800x600 16 bits on my old card.

 

[bront]

The 8500 is a very good choice.

I've not heard a thing about the Club 3D cards. The ATI cards are probably the best, and after that, likely the Gigabyte cards.

The ATI 8500LE 128 is made with 3.3NS mem, so should be highly overclockable. Most other OEMs make the cards with 3.6 or 4.0 for LEs, and 3.3-3.6 for non-LEs. You might get lucky with a non-ATI card, or you might not. I'd wait for a review of the Club 3D card to come out before I would buy.

As for the framerate difference between a TNT2 and an 8500, I almost trippled some of my framerates going from a GF2 MW400 to an 8500LE.

"Search your feelings you know it to be true, I am your... twin sister" - Darth Vader

 

[Ghostdog]

http://www.club-3d.nl/

I´m pretty much a newbie, so I´m too scared to try any overclocking. Or am I?....
I don´t even know how you overclock, especially not grahpics cards.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Ghostdog on 05/28/02 04:09 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[chuck232]

Well, overclocking is pretty easy. Go to guru3d.com for many different overclocking utilities, or if you get a nVidia card, you could use the registry hack where you can get a basic overclocking program. Overclocking really isn't hard. I've never heard of the company, but it looks pretty reputable. I'd still be more comfortable to get a Made by ATi card. They are almost guaranteed to have 3.3ns BGA RAM.

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[Crashman]

OMG an M64 was about 1/2 the performance of the orignal TNT2! Which was about half the performance of the original Geforce DDR! Which was about 1/2 the performance of the GeForce2 Ultra! Which was about 1/2 the performance of the Radeon 8500!

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[WingDing]

I used to have the TNT2 Ultra (much faster than the M64) and I upgraded to the Radeon 8500 LE. The difference is phenomenal - go ahead and buy.

I'd go for a good brand though, an ATi card if possible (as opposed to a 'powered by ATi', although both are fine). It'll give you great 2D performance and DVD quality too.

Sex is great but its no substitite for the real thing.....

 

[Ghostdog]

Well that pretty much means my mind is made up.

Hecules just came out with a non-LE model of the Radeon 8500 with 128 MBs of DDR memory. I´m going to see if I can get that for roughly the same.

In your experience, how much can you overclock a graphics chip? If anyone has particular experiences with the Radeon 8500/Radeon 8500LE, I would love to hear about them.