8500L/E vs. 9000PRO II

[Peter_Kanchev]

Which one is better: GIGABYTE AP64D (RADEON 8500L/E 64MB) or GIGABYTE RADEON 9000PRO II 128MB?

 

[leedz]

RADEON 9000PRO II 128MB is better. It includes all the features of Radeon 8500 and it supports FULLSTREAM which is the feature of Radeon9700pro.

 

[phial]

sorry but this is just simply not true...

yes, the 9000pro has all the features of the 8500(LE), but its a budget card so they figured out ways of fitting these features in a smaller package and this causes a loss in performance...

the 8500le has a higher fill rate, and a more powerful geometry engine. if you search the THG articles youll see that the 8500le is usually about 5-15% faster than the 9000pro, AND you can usually find the 8500LE 128meg for as little as 145$ Canadian.. or quite a bit less american.

(also, the 128meg version of the 8500le usually comes with 3.3ns BGA ram, so you can overclock the biatch quite nicely =))

 

[del_35]

and the 9000 seems to cause funney problems (very dark shades) in certain games i.e. Battlefield: 1942 but perhaps this is just a game bug!

<font color=purple> "Overclocking is like jumping traffic lights - theres always a bit of slack"</font color=purple>

 

[HolyShiznit]

Which one is better: GIGABYTE AP64D (RADEON 8500L/E 64MB) or GIGABYTE RADEON 9000PRO II 128MB?

I've heard more good things about the 8500 than about the 9000, despite its larger number.

 

[phsstpok]

The 9000 PRO only has one texture mapping unit per pipe. The 8500 has two TMUs per pipe. The 8500 performs better.

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

 

[Peter_Kanchev]

OK so the 8500LE is better...
Now which is better: ATI 8500LE retail or GIGABYTE 8500LE Retail?

 

[phial]

that, my friend is a good question

the ATI card probably sticks very close to the specs (225 mhz core, 225 mhz memory) so the ram they put on it is probably not overclockable very much

whereas the GIGABYTE card MIGHT have ram thats rated at a higher clock speed, allowing you to overclock up to standard 8500 speeds (275, 275).. its hard to say

as far as quality, both are very good companies so i wouldnt worry about getting a cheaply made card from either

 

[phsstpok]

I was just responding to leedz comment. To let him know there is at least one other difference between the 9000 Pro and 8500.

Comparing an 8500LE and 9000 PRO it gets a little fuzzy. Clock for clock the 8500 series outperforms a 9000 series. That's when both cards are clocked the same. For example, the the ATI retail versions of the both the full 8500 and 9000 Pro are clocked at 275 Mhz core/275 Mhz memory. Of these two, the 8500 performs better.

The retail version of the ATI 8500LE is a different story 250/250. To compare this to a retail ATI 9000 PRO is a little more complicated because of the Pro's 275/275 clocks. I've not seen any head to head comparisons between an 8500LE and 9000 Pro so I'm only guessing when I say that I think the retail 8500LE is still a little faster than the 9000 PRO despite the clock deficiency. Comparisons get worse when you start talkinga about the slower 8500LE's. Some of the OEMs are clocked at 230/230, 230/200, 250/200, and one is even 250/166 (yuck!).

As for the retail ATI 8500LE vs retail Gigabyte 8500LE, I don't know off hand. Check the clock speeds. I do know the retail ATI 8500LE is clocked at 250/250. I don't know the clocks of the Gigabyte card.

Other than the clock speeds check for features. The ATI version does not have a DVI port. The Gigabyte may have one but I'm not sure. If you need the capability of second monitor you need to check this. If you also wish the second monitor to be a CRT (vs a flat panel) you would need to check the card has a second RAMDAC which is needed for CRT support on the DVI-I connector.

You can avoid all the issues by purchasing a full, <b>retail</b>, ATI made (BBA) 8500 (not 8500LE). This gives you everything including TV-out (cable included), DVI-I with both flat panel and CRT support (not sure if a DVI-I to SVGA adapter is included), and the core and memory speeds are at 275/275.

Genuine ATI 8500 cards (both 8500LE and 8500) have been very good overclockers. You will often see people mentioning "BBA" meaning Built By ATI. These have been the best. I have an OEM 8500. Stock clock is 275/250 but I routinely overclock it to 300/325 (I need an extra cooling fan for this). I have clocked it as high as 308/340(680 DDR speeds!). This card has a DVI port but its not a DVI-I and does not support a second CRT.

I personally don't believe that the 64MB vs 128MB is enough of an issue for the usable life of the 8500. By the time large amounts of video memory become an issue you probably want something better anyway. On the otherhand, if there isn't much of cost difference then get the one with large memory but be aware that the 128MB 8500s usually are clocked a little lower than their 64MB counterparts.

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

 

[Spitfire_x86]

64 MB Radeon 8500 (full, not LE) is the best buy among 8500/8500LE (64 or 128 MB)/9000 Pro (64 or 128 MB). BBA cards are always recommended.

Let us know <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=25703#25703" target="_new"> What File compression format you use? </A>

 

[phsstpok]

I just searched pricewatch. It seems BBAs are getting hard to come by. Newegg.com doesn't have any in stock at the moment (except DVs and AIWs). They mostly have Sapphire cards.

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

 

[Oracle]

The 3.6ns memory provided on the ATI cards allows the memory modules to be overclocked quite nicely. I've got an ATI 8500LE 128Mb with 3.6ns Infineon modules, and both the core and the memory are overclocked to 280Mhz and they are rock solid.


<font color=red>That was my two cents!</font color=red>
<font color=blue>Now I'm broke!</font color=blue>

 

[Peter_Kanchev]

Thank you all From what i've read above, i can conclude the retail BBA RADEON 8500/8500LE is the best of these cards. The problem is that i'll probably don't have enough money for a full 8500... that's why i am looking at LE.

 

[Oracle]

Only difference between 8500 and 8500LE is the downclocked core and memory. That can easily be arranged with a little overclocking as I mentionned in my earlier post. So, 8500LE w/128Mb offers the best value. You can't go wrong with the BBA 8500LE 128Mb.


<font color=red>That was my two cents!</font color=red>
<font color=blue>Now I'm broke!</font color=blue>