64MB GF3 or 128MB Radeon 8500LE?

Well, a R8500LE performs about the same as a Ti500, maybe a bit better. Also, as you can see, it's more expensive than the GF3 series too. The GF4 Ti's are a bit faster, but is it worth the extra $40? Na, I don't think so... I previously owned a R8500LE, but I returned it cause I found a Ti4200 for almost the same price. The R8500LE 128MB had 3.6ns BGA RAM and I could overclock to 310/310. Not too shabby I'd say. Also, what are your computer specs?

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thanx for responding...My computer's specs are as follows:
Athlon XP2000+
Asus A7V333 with 512mb of DDR333
SBLive 5.1
with all current drivers
I should also mention my previous video card, a MSI Geforce 3 TI200 caused problems in my system and the one before my current one(an Athlon 1.0 GHZ with KT133 chipset)....it would stutter and lag on games like Jedi Knight 2 and MOHAA even at 640x480 with all the details turned down...for that reason, I"m leaning toward the ATI card because hopefully it won't cause that problem like my old Nvidia card

BTW: I could pay about ~130 Dollars for a 64MB version of the GF4 TI4200 card....do you think that the extra 64MB of memory on the ATI radeon 8500LE will be better for gaming in the long run?

If you compare a 64MB R8500LE and the 128MB version, there's actually almost a 10% performance increase in a lot of games. The extra 64MB really helps when the textures get more complex/larger. I'd say the extra RAM may not be needed if you intend on upgrading your video card within a year, but if you intend to keep it longer, the extra RAM should help out.

The Ti4200 would definitely be faster, but in games like JKII, the Radeons really do well, beating the Ti4200s handily. In other games like QuakeIII, the Ti4200s will win, but you won't be able to tell the difference cause your monnitor probably can't refresh @150Hz @1600x1200.

ATI's 2D image quality is above nVidia's IMO, and their anisotropic filtering is really quite nice.

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go for Radeon. not important which one, 8500 or 8500le, 64mb or 128mb.
radeon's are better than geforce's in performance/price

Banshee; The best ever produced card in price/performance!

I bought an 8500LE 64MB OEM BBA (turned out to be a 8500 OEM BBA) for $99 about 3 months ago. If I could get the 128MB version for $120 at that time I would have. Ti4200 for $160, tough call. I guess it's worth it but it's just about a coin toss to me. If you can wait that month you mentioned then prices might be better.

I wouldn't even consider the Geforce3 64MB.

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what about driver problems? I've been talking with my friends about the Radeon 8500, and many of them are telling me that the Radeon 8500 is really incompatible with tons of games, and that the drivers stink

That's ancient history now! ATI has been constantly improving their drivers for about 6-7 months now and they're all rock solid.

:wink: <b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b> :wink:

I haven't had any problems with any of my games but then I'm a light duty player. MOHAA and Max Payne are the newest games that I have played. I also play an older game, Rally Masters. My nephew plays 1nsane on my machine and some RC car game, Re-Volt I think. Giants and Black & White work but I don't play them. Sometimes I play Serious Sam (the original one). That's about it.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>