Geforce3 TI500 or a ATI Radeon 8500

[HugoHenry]

I am going to be building a new system with the 2000XP and I want a killer video card.
Right now I am looking at the Gainward TI550, but the ATI Radeon 8500 Is looking strong to. Anyone got any recomendations for me.
Which card is the best???

[funnyperson1]

the Gainward is faster, but is not (in my mind) worth the extra money.....actually right now they are about on par with each other performance wise.....the 8500 has better image quality and dual monitor support......the only thing that would make me go for the Gainward is Nvidia driver support, but from what ive heard the 8500 drivers are pretty good....

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

THe "Image quality" thing that funnyperson posted is purely speculative at best. I sell BOTH cards. There is no difference in video quality realistically. And as for dual monitor support it is very sketchy and only allows you are limited to identical resolution rates for both monitors. Hydravision needs work, along with the Beta 8500's drivers...STILL. Yeah the GF3 is a few bucks more, but has solid driver support, unlike ATI. If a few bucks difference isnt a concern then get the GF3 card which is a sure and PROVEN bet.

[Da Whip]

All depends what you are building the "killer" system for.

Gameing; ie; Max Payne, RTCW, Q3 or UT. GF3 hands down.

Movie/ digital imaging; 8500

Everything else is a wash.

[funnyperson1]

actually the 8500 is right up there or beating the Ti500 in the gmes listed.....oh yeah, and Ritteri have you tried the newest beta drivers?

[HugoHenry]

I am building my system for gaming, and actually all the games you have listed.
I have read different opinions about the new drivers and many reviews and posts say the ATI sucks compared to a Nvidia card.
Money isn't an option. I guess its all going to be a matter of opinion. Mine is I am going with the Nvidia because of Proven Power and Excellent Drivers. But, looking at the benchmarks FUnnyperson you are right the ATI is beating the Nvidia crowd, but where can you find a true 8500 with 275/275 core anymore all sell the LE with only 250/250. I am building a system under 1700$ and I am right under it with the Gainward TI550. So I will Probably go with that.

SYstem specs to build:
AMD 1900XP
MCX462 HSF
SOYO Dragon +
512MB PC2700 Kingmax 5ns Ram
Gainward TI550
Dual IBM 40GB 7200RPM HD Raid 0
Sony 56x CD
HP 8x CDRW
Teac Floppy
Samsung DynaFlat 17" monitor
Fong Kai FK320 Case w/500w PS
Finished off with some Round Cables for Looks and AirFlow.

[funnyperson1]

www.mwave.com sells the retail ATi 8500 for 250$.....

[moonman]

I see nothing wrong with the oem version of radeon 8500, I have my oem 250/500 runing at 295/610 no articfacts at all.

[HugoHenry]

But would you say ATI is better than a TI500.
My friend just got a MSI TI500 and his default benchmark with no overclocking was 7995. Rank was 3 on the Polls.
I think that is quite impressive, for a out of the box video card.
I have been looking at the ATI, but I just don't know if Thats what I want. I look at the benchmarks and see the Nvidia in the lead, plus with the post about people having all the problems with the ATI cards.
Although Nvidia also has problems. DAMN. It is a tough choice. I can get the TI550 Gainward for 313$, or the ATI 850 for $250. With price not being a option, I just don't know what way to go..
I am ordering one or the other later today. Got a site that benchmarks them toghter with the ATI latest drivers??

[moonman]

well it's ur call buddy, I got my radeon because it was teh same price as the gf3 ti-200 and I'm quite happy at it's performance rite now espcialy with the new drivers. I'm pretty sure that an overclocked oem radeon 8500 can outperform gf3 ti-500 in some areas.

just my 2 cents,

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

First off, for games the Ti500 is STILL king, 2nd, its DVD playback is also superb. Basically the 8500 is like a Ferrari 550 Maranello(hardware)car being driven by your 95 year old great Aunt.(software) I would call the Ti500 a Porsche 911 Turbo being driven by Mario Andretti. Even though the 550 may have the hardware advantage, the "driver" for it sucks. This is really what its all about. As for benchmarks, call 3d2001 a "dyno" test, as there is no real world "driving" going on except under controlled circumstances to show potential horsepower. If you do end up being stupid or cheap by getting an 8500, then make sure it is a RETAIL model from ATI, as they do have better potential. Otherwise look at doing a PNY or Asus for the Ti500. THese are the 2 best cards as they use the best PCB boards, best traces and layouts. Gainwards PCB boards and traces tend to be sloppy and not up to quality as the others mentioned.

[moonman]

wat drivers were u usin before u changed to the gf3 ti-500?

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

Is this question aimed at me? I sell and own both cards. The Radeon is based on both the 3286 and 6011 drivers. The Ti500 based off of the 2250 and 21.83 drivers. My comments are probably as unbiased as you will get on the BB. I tell it like it is.

[wildone]

why not just get a ti200 ,save yourself some money and overclock it?

wildone

[HugoHenry]

ti200?? No. And I have read reviews at AnandTech and TomsHardware and they praise Gainward above all the rest and say the TI550 card is pure delight. I Had a Geforce 3 and sold it for a TI500. I was hitting 7200 on my Elsa Gladiac 920with the 23.11 drivers and major OC of 250/570 from 200/460.
I am going with the TI500, but the Gainward. If OCZ would release theres I would buy it. I think It is goin to be a TI 458, but WILL BE WELL worth the money.

[wildone]

Originally posted by HugoHenry
ti200?? No. And I have read reviews at AnandTech and TomsHardware and they praise Gainward above all the rest and say the TI550 card is pure delight. I Had a Geforce 3 and sold it for a TI500. I was hitting 7200 on my Elsa Gladiac 920with the 23.11 drivers and major OC of 250/570 from 200/460.
I am going with the TI500, but the Gainward. If OCZ would release theres I would buy it. I think It is goin to be a TI 458, but WILL BE WELL worth the money.

I hit 8332 in 3dmark 2001 so far with my ti200.

wildone

[HugoHenry]

Well Why not just get a Geforce 2 Ultra with a core speed of 275 and OC it?? It is even cheaper and already is far past what most Geforce 3 cards can overclock to? The answer is i want the Latest and Greatest, and besides the Radeon is faster than the TI200 by a long shot. The Radeon with the new drivers isn't far behind the TI 500. I just don't want to get the Radeon in hopes they release new drivers to beat the TI500 and never do. Besides the way Nvidia is going, with there new drivers every time I update I see anywhere from a 1000-2000 point increase in benchmarks. Can Radeon do that. I don't know and I am not buying a video card on false hopes.
Thanks for the help though and I appreciate it. I have made the decision to go witht he Gainward TI 550.

[wildone]

well my ti200 scores higher then alot of radeons and ti500's ,its all in what you wanna tweak it to be ;),I like the lifetime warranty with mine too ,for an overclocker it is nice ,now if only I had an xp I wouldbe close to the top 10 ti200's I know ,for my card and processor speed I am in second by less then 100 pts.

wildone

[HugoHenry]

Yeah lifetime warranty is great isn't it. To bad it isn't offered with OC. When you burn it up and send it back to see the problem and notice it is OC'd you will be SOL. Unless PNY allows OC which some do, not sure about PNY.

The Radeon still looks good though, about bought the Ti500 but had second thoughts.
I looked at the Radeon Retail again, thought about it and a new Crystal Orb fan with some Copper heatsinks would look nice. puts the price at about 274 with everything.
I also heard you can buy the OEM 8500LE with the 250/250 for $179 and flash the Bios to the Retail and it will run at 275/275. If this is true I might just go that way. Anyone know about this?

[wildone]

Originally posted by HugoHenry
Yeah lifetime warranty is great isn't it. To bad it isn't offered with OC. When you burn it up and send it back to see the problem and notice it is OC'd you will be SOL. Unless PNY allows OC which some do, not sure about PNY.

The Radeon still looks good though, about bought the Ti500 but had second thoughts.
I looked at the Radeon Retail again, thought about it and a new Crystal Orb fan with some Copper heatsinks would look nice. puts the price at about 274 with everything.
I also heard you can buy the OEM 8500LE with the 250/250 for $179 and flash the Bios to the Retail and it will run at 275/275. If this is true I might just go that way. Anyone know about this?

*About the warranty ,they include powerstripe on the cd and talk about overclocking in there faq so I dont think that matters

*SOMETIMES*not always you can flash the bios and it work but beware not always.

[Maximus Nickus]

Again its all preference, I haven't had good luck with Nvidia 3 faulty MX-400's all diff manufacturers) whereas my 8500 is fine.

www.ebuyer.com sell the Retails for £200 + shipping but it took 3 weeks for me to get hold of one, however I am really impressed with this card, the TV-Out function is great asvis the performance.

However its drivers aren't up to par (although the new Beta's seem good enough, the Omega's are best though) If you want a high performance cards that will perform right out of the box get the Ti-500 however if you like tweaking and waiting or the new drivers as well as saving a few $ then go for the 8500 which will in the FAR future eventually beat the Ti-500.

[Silversinksam]

I was in the same position as HugoHenry a short time back and I was leaning towards the ti500 for two reasons, one the driver support and timely driver releases for Nvidia cards, ATI is getting better but they are not even close to the attention to detail building a total package.

The second reason I was leaning towards the ti500 is that great hardware and killer driver together equals a winner.





SO WHAT DO I DO? I was able to get a 8500(oem 250/250) for under $170 so I took a chance, key word here is chance.


I got lucky and got a decent OEM version that overclocks decently, but If I had to do it again I'd get the Gigabyte retail 8500. Should be on sale soon, if not already.

That or get a ti500 but that brings you back to Sqr. 1 as they both are good. But if both were the same price I'd without hesitation get the ti500

;)

[Kingslayer]

I would get the 8500 but I wouldnt get the retail. I would get an OEM card from Gigabyte. They are coming shipped at the same speeds as the retail card.

And as a bonus, Gigabyte has also included onboard temp monitoring.

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by Kingslayer
I would get the 8500 but I wouldnt get the retail. I would get an OEM card from Gigabyte. They are coming shipped at the same speeds as the retail card.

And as a bonus, Gigabyte has also included onboard temp monitoring.

Kingslayer, The Gigabyte has faster ram to boot....And the board will be made on red PCB :eek:




Im curious to know how the Gigabyte 8500 is going to price as its due to hit the shelves any day :cool:

[HugoHenry]

Yes It is good that ATI is finally producing good drivers, but with the lack of good drivers the TI 500 dominates them. And ATI will eventually get drivers that are "Up to PAR". However, since Nvidia has released the Geforce 3 Detonator drivers from Day 1, the power of the cards has done nothing but get better and better. So once ATI does pull there finger out there bums, Nvidia will just release another driver for the TI500, or by then just release the Geforce 4. As it looks now ATI is in no big hurry to release decent drivers for the 8500, and will probably be way behind when they finally do. As for the current drivers the only thing they beat Nvidia in is the 3DMark2001 Benchmarks, but as for games nothing has knocked Nvidia off there well achieved Roost.
ALthough Nvidia based cards are alittle pricey, with no good competition they can, and have the right to be.

[Silversinksam]

Hugo,

Is it me or does ATI have a history of spitting out great hardware before thier drivers are even usable?.....ATI is in such a rush to keep on the heels of Nvidia they throw the hardware out on the street and work on the software in a illogical order.:mad:

By the time the Radeon 8500 has fully functioning drivers the Geforce VI will be released.........and probably 15 sets of Nvidia drivers to ATI's one.......And the Nvidia drivers work :p