Gigabyte 8500LE

[skip]

Just ordered the Gigabyte 8500LE and will have it tomorrow. We'll see what it does

 

[funnyperson1]

good luck...

 

[Arkaine23]

Gigabyte

Awesome. I want one and have been digging up info on the card for weeks. Will probably get one very soon. Very interested in seeing what yours can do when you get it, Skip.

 

[WyrmMaster]

Im starting to think il get one myself. I had almost decided to get a retail radeon instead, but for less money get the same RAM, so it should overclock as well, some games, a cool red PCB, hardware monitoring, and some cooling that i may or may not replace.

 

[skip]

Came came in today.

Very nice card with a great game bundle. Heatsinks on the backside of card also. Drivers disk includes an overclocking - hardware monitoring utility called v-tuner.

Tested the card on one of my testbeds. Soyo Dragon Plus Motherboard, 512M PC2100, Athlon XP1800+. CPU is clocked at 1670 Mhz (152 FSB). Fast Writes enabled in Bios. OS is Windows XP Pro.

This is NOT a clean system at all. It has had many video card installations and other hardware switches.

Installation was easy. Pulled old card (GF2 Ti200) Installed Gigabyte, booted machine and loaded drivers.

All benchmarks run with drivers included on CD (Version 6.13.10.6014). V-Synch off. No other optimizations.

After running 3DMark 2001, Core showed 46c and Memory 44c. Case temp 28c CPU 38c.

3Dmark 2001 Scores:

Stock Core/Mem 250/250 - 8164
270/270 - 8529
272/280 - 8584

Could not go higher then 272 on core or it would lock up running 3DMark. Any higher then 281 on Memory resulted in artifacts.

This was just a quick drop it in and test. I will load the latest drivers and possibly re-install the OS and see what it does.

Overall for a $155 card. I'm pretty happy.

 

[Silversinksam]

I was seriously considering upgrading to that card, the hardware monitoring alone is a sweet feature.....Skip explain the heatsink on the back of the card? Is it like an 'airlift' or what?

Also whats the memory speed? 3.6, 3.3 or 4

Im curious if the layout is similiar to regular 8500, if so a resistor mod may get you over 300/300

If you go the pencil trick Be prepared to buy a new one as a few guys have cr@pped thier 8500's trying that method

 

[skip]

Memory is 4

 

[skip]

Card with heatsink stripped

 

[Silversinksam]

Thanks for the pics Skip.....thats one sweet card for $150 clams.....enjoy it.

PS thats quiete an innovative heatsink on the back of the Gpu


Enjoy the card and heres a source for the most current drivers

http://www.warp2search.net/download.php?op=viewsdownload&sid=8

 

[funnyperson1]

that looks like something nice to strap an 80mm fan to...but im sure the alknowing skip already thought of that

 

[skip]

This card is plenty for me. We have to remember, it IS an LE. For $150 it's a hell of a card. You can even adjust fan speed in the Hardware monitoring utility.

Thermal past application was horrible. May even do a bit more now that I cleaned it up and re-applied the paste.

 

[skip]

Front of card.

Notice the second "Monitored" fan connector at the top of the board? Hmmmmm.....

 

[funnyperson1]

drool

 

[skip]

Re-installed the heatsinks and did a decent thermal paste job. Lowered my GPU temps to 43C amd Memory to 42c. Was able to do much better with this card! Will do a clean OS install and go with the latest drivers next week.

Core 280 Mem 284 8696 3DMarks

 

[Lummoxx]

I'm purchasing soon, and flip-flopping between multiple cards more than a fish out of water...

How does this card compare to the similarly priced GF3 Ti200? Both performance and quality wise?

I was pretty much set on the GF3, until this thread...heh...

*flip*
*flop*

Thanks!

 

[Yodums]

Re-installed the heatsinks and did a decent thermal paste job. Lowered my GPU temps to 43C amd Memory to 42c. Was able to do much better with this card! Will do a clean OS install and go with the latest drivers next week.

Core 280 Mem 284 8696 3DMarks

Watercool that thing

 

[Malakai]

i love my gainward Ti200. i like the way quincunx on geforce 3's looks. and for 140$US or less, u get a card pretty much garunteed to go at or faster with stock cooling than a Ti500
-Malakai

 

[skip]

It's faster then my Visiontek GF3 Ti200. Quality is very good on this card too. The 3DMark demos look much nicer on the Radeon.

It's a matter of what you like. The GF3 Ti200 can probably be pushed to ti500 speeds and would blow this thing away. If you prefer nVidia, stay with it.

I'm purchasing soon, and flip-flopping between multiple cards more than a fish out of water...

How does this card compare to the similarly priced GF3 Ti200? Both performance and quality wise?

I was pretty much set on the GF3, until this thread...heh...

*flip*
*flop*

Thanks!

 

[Silversinksam]

I'm purchasing soon, and flip-flopping between multiple cards more than a fish out of water...

How does this card compare to the similarly priced GF3 Ti200? Both performance and quality wise?

I was pretty much set on the GF3, until this thread...heh...

*flip*
*flop*

Thanks!

I'll tell you the truth here, I was very much anti ATI ever since the original Radeon I purchased. About 6 months ago I decided to try a 8500(oem) for the sole basis of the price compared to a Nvidia high end card.

Ati has ALWAYS had driver problems and they just didnt understand that building a great card wasn't enough.....you need working drivers to compliment the great card.

Over the last 6 months ATI has apparently listened to the publics outcry and have come a long way in such a short period of time.

It's hard to believe that I would actually recommend an ATI product to anyone, but here I am doing just that.

The decision to buy an ATI vs Nvidia based card is harder than ever

For people on a budget looking to buy a high performance card the answer is simple. Get an ATI

If you have the money to burn and want the fastest card made, get a Nvidia card, but the 8500 shouldnt disapoint you either

 

[Lummoxx]

Heh..definitely don't have money to burn. I think the only thing stopping me from buying this Gigabyte 8500LE now is the fact that GF4Ti4200's are supposed to be coming soon.

I'm looking to spend about $150, although I don't have it yet. Will be able to make the purchase mid-month, although it looks like I'm waiting until the end of the month, to see where the 4200's come in.

Just trying to get the most for my money. That means a fast card that will let me run two (VGA) monitors, for around the $150 I mentioned.

I'll wait a year, and spend $200 or so on a Ti4600.