8500LE 250Mhz

One really has to admire a card that is old and yet will hit Ti4xxx speeds (Oc'ed) on an MX budget. Picked one up today and played with it a little this evening. 11K is not too shabby on a factory card that is clocked at 250Mhz. This test was run at 283.5/367 without any mods to the card what-so-ever. No vmods, GPU or ram cooling enhancements with no fans blowing on the side of the case in a 27.5C ambient. I will admit of course the cpu OC however that will be less and less of an issue in the coming months. One could do worse than to pick one of these up as a backup card while OC'ing the hottest thing out (and possibly frying it). I think I shall mod this one to break 12G and leave it there so it is available in the future. Sure beats the xxxx out of the pci mx200.

Am still looking for system tweaks for it should anyone be willing to give up any information as I am new to the Radeon scene. No wars please. I generally prefer the faster cards (regardless of brand) however just wanted to note that this card may well have been ahead of its time and seems to still be holding its own (though I expect it to get put to bed within the next six months or so). Still, this along with an xp1600 and a refurbed 333 board would make a good system on the cheap. Take Care All.

What utility are you useing to O/C with? What drivers are you using?
I am debating swapping out my GF3 Ti200 for this card. I have a system I am building for a client and I ordered him a 8500LE, he calls yesterday and said he has decided he wants a Ti200. Great I ordered the 8500LE thursday and newegg shipped it already. So I could give him my Ti200 and keep the 8500LE. Good decision?

The Nvidia guys will hate me for this but the 8500 is a better card than the Ti200. I have always believed that and I think if you can get the Nvidia guys in a non-flame war but instead a real conversation they will concede this to be true. Let's put it this way, out of the box the Ti200 would do 6400 in 3dmk2001. The 8500 did 9100 out of the box. The highest score I could attain over volted and modded was 10,200 on the Ti200 and so far without mods the 8500 has broken 11000. It really is a no brainer. I am using the cat 2.2 drivers and 3d rage for oc'ing as of now however this may or may not be the ideal setup as I know nothing of the Radeons and am learning.

BTW, I am not biased towards one or the other cards. On vid cards I try to run the fastest at whatever financial situation. You may want to take a look at default scores on the Ti 4xxx series and then ask yourself which card (8500/Ti200) has the potential to achieve that level of performance. This really shows one heck of a value for dollar spent. The only bummer is learning a new vid card.

all the nvidia guys should realize the 8500 is a better card than the ti200. thats really a no-brainer.

the radeon 8500 competes with the ti500 and the ti4200, not the ti200.

Sorry to thread crap
But could you give me link to the latest Cat Drivers Silver?

Thanks
M_N

Even though I am the village Nvidiot these days I have always said the 8500 is a great card...In fact the Gigabyte 8500 is even better.....But all in all the 8500 is the best bang for the buck bar none. (As long as you stay away from the Crucial 8500LE as it's a piece of _ _ _ _ Due to it's 250/166 using 6ns micron chips


PS nice score Silver.

i am still an nvidia fan, but when somebody shows me numbers i can accept any kind of facts. As a fact i fried my gf3, so i ordered a gigabyte radeon 8500LE 64m for $85, it was budget but i think its worth it. Yes ive seen and accept that a radeon 8500LE is on par with a gf3 ti500 and overclocked maybe as high as a gf4 4200.

This gigabyte baby is flodded with ramsinks , so ill take em off along with the gpu hs to apply AATA and replace the fan with a 60mm dude, still have to figure out how to attach it. I plan to use powerstrip on the whole process, and that wil be pretty much of my first vid card oc, sounds good, i just hope not to take off the rams or the gpu along with the hsf (in the freezer trick we trust )

im still a n00b, but i think overclocking and moding a video card its the best way to learn to oc

Silversinksam said:

Even though I am the village Nvidiot these days I have always said the 8500 is a great card...In fact the Gigabyte 8500 is even better.....But all in all the 8500 is the best bang for the buck bar none. (As long as you stay away from the Crucial 8500LE as it's a piece of _ _ _ _ Due to it's 250/166 using 6ns micron chips


PS nice score Silver.

Click to expand...

So far the only mod made to the card is sanding down the GPU and added a 1U cooler with the 30cfm TT fan. Now runs at 301/602 and here is the latest score. BTW, what Ti runs Stock and scores 11500 on 3dmk2001. Still looking like a good buy. Shall try ram sinks next and then possible a vmod or two.

http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4223526

Take Care All. Anyone know of any hot mods I may have missed in 3drage? As for the cat 2.2 it is available from www.ati.com .

Oh yeah, it is a 128 meg card.