9000 pro or 8500 LE

[Twigs]

im looking for a card to hold me over until the R420 is released next year, right now im stuck with a geforce 4 mx440 PCI I was thinking of buying a 9000 pro or a 8500 LE...it doesnt have to be great, I want to run Call of Duty and condition zero fine but i dont need it for hl2(im also considering a refurbished geforce card...) any imput?

 

[Twigs]

also, if i do decide to splurge and get a ti 4200, what brand is a good overclocker?

 

[f00t]

I have had both a 9000pro and a 8500le and must say the 8500le slaps the 9000pro around like a ragdoll

 

[Th0r]

Yes the 8500LE is a better choice..... don't bother with the TI4200, no point if u are getting a new card next year...

 

[Foxie3a]

Asus TI-4200 is a very good one..
but

I have a Radeon 8500 and it is very nice..very good picture quality..and can run everything that I've tried..probably the newest game would be Splinter Cell..and that is lagless

get nice ramsinks, OC the ram a bit..and u can easily OC the core with stock everything...I can get my core to 315 with stock, and no errors.

I have read a lot that the Radeon 9000 is a lot worse than the 8500.

 

[Th0r]

No point in getting the TI4200 is it???? he is going to update when the new R420 comes out. just get the 8500LE that will tie you over..

 

[Yuriman]

The 8500 is the best choice of the three. From what I hear, the ti4200 has slowdown when using AF much moreso than the 8500. With my old one I personaly saw no framerate difference with it on and off.

 

[Twigs]

ok thanks, ill pick up a 8500, whats the difference between the le and the non le? is it like a pro and non pro? also i think i broke my geforce 4 mx440 pci when ocing it...oh well

 

[Too Smart]

The non-LE is slightly better than the LE. I think LE stands for light edition. Also, there exists a 8500 Pro but those are very rare (I don't think anyone on these forums has one).

They don't make the 8500 anymore, so unless you're going to buy a used one on Ebay, you will have a hard time finding one. Instead you might want to buy a Radeon 9100 which is the 8500LE with a new name. I'm not sure why they gave it a new number, probably to indicate that it was better than the 9000.

By the way, going from MX440 to 8500LE will not be that big of an improvement.

 

[Matthias99]

The 9000/9100/9200 are basically the same as the 8500 variants, but some running at slightly different clocks and with different memory. They may also have a newer RAMDAC chip. But otherwise they're identical (I saw someone on another board who flashed his 8500LE to a 9100 BIOS, if you don't believe it). I believe they use the R240/250/260 cores, respectively.

The 9100 is numbered differently from the 9000 because it performs better, and so they can charge more for it.