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Radeon 8500 worth $139?

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Bubba

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2001
Location
Texas
I just got back from BB and I bought a Radeon 8500 for $139 after all the rebates.Should I have waited for one of the GeForce 4200's?I heard these will be awesome cards and right around the $165-175 range.I'm so confused with all these cards and I try to keep up which is putting me in the poor house.I guess my question is for a high quality card that I won't have to upgrade for awhile is this the right card or will the 4200 for $50 more be the smarter or better choice.Any opinions are welcome.
 
if it is better it wont be by much....i think you got a great deal that will last you 1.5-2 years...
 
I think the deal you got was great, I paid $200.00 for my Radeon 8500 Retail, Is your card Retail or oem? if it's Retail you got a good deal and it can be overclocked easily.
 
I don't think you'll be disapointed, I just got the same card - last one on the self at my local store and cheaper than the 7500. :D

I had been looking at the 7500 to use for now and when I upgraded later on I would put it into a Home Theater PC and use the DVI to drive a projector - BUT, the 8500 was on sale so I couldn't resist - It will eventually find its way into a HTPC as it too has DVI and VGA output.

Also, remember that it has excellent hardware DVD acceleration - yet another plus for the HTPC application.

Don't look back and don't listen to all those that would put this card down, at $140 it's an great purchase. :cool:
 
You got a good buy. The GF4s drove ATI down in retail stores like Best Buy and CompUSA this weekend, and that makes them very attractive solutions. And Hey! $139 for a retail 8500 is great! Buck for buck, it's the best buy out there right now. You chose wisely.

Hope you enjoy it!
 
Thanks for all the feedback.I feel better now and I'm about to crank it up as soon as I get this PC put together.Lian Li pc60,XP1800,Radeon 8500,512mg corsair 2400 cas 2(2 sticks of 256)Win XP home edit,2 maxtor ATA 133 20 gigs in raid,Abit KR7A+.
 
Bubba said:
Thanks for all the feedback.I feel better now and I'm about to crank it up as soon as I get this PC put together.Lian Li pc60,XP1800,Radeon 8500,512mg corsair 2400 cas 2(2 sticks of 256)Win XP home edit,2 maxtor ATA 133 20 gigs in raid,Abit KR7A+.

Wow, sounds like it's going to be a cool system. Check out your RAM chips on your Radeon for us and see about your timings. 3.3ns? I've got my fingers crossed for you.
 
funnyperson1 said:
if it is better it wont be by much....i think you got a great deal that will last you 1.5-2 years...


heh I beg to differ. I say itll last at least 5 years. a tnt is what? 5 years old and the latest games still support it! although I have to say using a vanta on diablo2 was slow, but then, diablo wasnt coded very well. quake3 was coded much better so its fast on any card besides the virge :)
 
lol....i was talking about 1024x768 resolution....my Rage Fury Pro after two years just stopped really being enough for this res in a lot of games....
 
funnyperson1 said:
lol....i was talking about 1024x768 resolution....my Rage Fury Pro after two years just stopped really being enough for this res in a lot of games....

I run older games in the highest res the game supports and newer games anywhere from 640x480 to 2048x1536!
any way to make diablo2 run higher than 800x600?
 
Will the price of the card go back up after the G4 hype settles? I may get one at these prices.
 
Overclocker550 said:

any way to make diablo2 run higher than 800x600?

Ha, I would run diablo2 on 640x480 on 19inch monitor, do you know how crappy that looks.
I would zoom my monitor out just so I could play:D

I never did get the expansion pack. Got sick of all the lag, even on a 1.5Mbs dsl line, maybes it better now.


Anyway great deal on the 8500, considering it's almost as fast as a ti500 and way cheaper.
My tnt2 M64 just hanging in there, I'm looking into replacing it with one of those 8500's too.
 
It is definitely worth $139. If I didn't have an 8500 already I would go out and buy one. Their performance is excellent, but the drivers are still subpar compared to Nvidia. But for $139 you can't pass this up.
 
diablo2 looks better in 800x600, but id like 1600x1200 :) as for lag, we get it all the time. lag is a fact for all games, nothing will help lag, but broadband will lessen the lag effects
 
Hey, how long does this sale last on the 8500? A friend is looking to build a system and he wants a cheap beautiful card. Sounds like we might have found it.
 
your radeon 8500 is fine :)

the reason that they are holding back the GeForce4 Ti 4200s are that they are just about equal to that of a GeForce3 Ti 500 and will replace them in the market place.

Since radeons are equal to/ some say better than a GeForce3 Ti 500 i think that you got a better deal because it gives ATI more time to make better drivers and u have the card NOW in ur computer and not in a few months... Dont expect the GF 4 4200s to come out for quite some time because they have to sell all those GF 3s that are still on the shelves.

So better to have the card chilling in ur computer now for less money then get a similar card months from now for $50 more...
 
rivercom9 said:
Hey, how long does this sale last on the 8500? A friend is looking to build a system and he wants a cheap beautiful card. Sounds like we might have found it.

Best Buy: Prices good through 3/9/02
CompUSA (Radeon 8500 for $149): Price good through 3/9/02 at some (All?) locations.

You might want to check out CompUSA if Best Buy is out. The ad says they can only offer that price on 5 per store.

Good luck!
 
hpotter said:
It is definitely worth $139. If I didn't have an 8500 already I would go out and buy one. Their performance is excellent, but the drivers are still subpar compared to Nvidia. But for $139 you can't pass this up.

Do you have current information to back this up? The driver issue is OVER! This rumor needs to be stopped.
 
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