SOLVED Radeon 'LE' - vs. - GF2 MX?

[LoCuTuS]

What is the Radeon LE you ask? http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1473
WOW!

Does anyone have one of these? WHat are the chances of reaching 183MHz?
Are the ATi drivers really that bad?
Should I get this, or the GF2 MX?

 

[AKDUDE]

Everyone at Rage3d has no problem getting 183, and most go above (with extra cooling).
No the drivers are not that bad. Anandtech reviewed the Radeon in Feb, and they refer in their latest artical to the driver issues then. ATI has updated the W2k and 98 drivers several times since then, as well as releasing many beta drivers. W2k performance is on par with 98 now.

Id go with the Radeon over the MX, as it will last you a bit longer, especially at 32 bit apps.

One thing to note, the Radeon DDR they compair the LE too is a 64 meg card.
AKDUDE

 

[SteveI]

I'd say the chances are pretty darn good.. I am running mine at 166 now, and I have been too lazy to install the hs/fan and ram sinks I have sitting next to me to really start pushing it.

Also, I find it interesting that the article shows 3 ATI cards w/32megs of ram, compared to a bunch of other cards with 64megs.... How's that for a fair comparison?

 

[Hugo 59]

I'm running mine at 183 with no problem. I dont have a heatsink fan on it but I do have a slot fan right under it.

 

[LoCuTuS]

thanks for the replies!

akdude:
what are people using for cooling? blu orbs and ram sinks? one of the main concerns is that ATI will stop making drivers because of financial problems like S3.

SteveI:
have you tried going higher without adding any more cooling? or is it running hot at the speed?

Also, the Anandtech site comapres the LE with the 32MB Radeons. Only the NVidia cards are 64MB.

 

[FunkyTechnician]

I was ready to buy the Radeon 64DDR until I started reading about the LE. I bought the LE to save money since I wasn't a big gamer (except for Tribes2). I have not had a problem reaching 180/180 using Radeon Tweaker. I've gotten as high as 190/190 but got some artifacts in 3dmark2001.
I don't really do any tweaking to the Radeon since I flashed the LE with the retail bios (quite simple to do). It runs at 165/165 and has hyper-Z on all the time. I've got the bios files if you decide to get the Radeon LE.

Amiel

 

[SteveI]

SteveI:
have you tried going higher without adding any more cooling? or is it running hot at the speed?

Don't really need it. I had it as high as 175 but it didn't improve my benchmarks much at all. I think it is because of win2k. I am going to update to retail bios, add the extra cooling, update drivers, then push it. Also, I'm lazy and I don't have the time to open up my pc at the moment. It always turns into a major project for me. But when I do, it will be nice to have all that headroom. I have heard people were able to hit the 190's without problems.

 

[AKDUDE]

I had not heard of ATI having troubles, I know for a couple quarters they did not make a profit, but thats about standard recently for most tech companys. I think the last quarter they posted a profit, so no worrys.... and they don't seem to be laying anyone off.

I use the blue orb on mine. I like the CFM's it moves, and it runs cold to the touch at the high overclocks. I know the stock heatsink with no fan gets pretty hot when overclocked to 190.
I don't know how critical the sink is for the LE. Ill tell you this though, when I first got the orb, I got the bright idea of using the thermal tape that comes with it to attach it to the GPU. Well here I am, running at 180, playing games all the time and such, and I happen to open the case up, and theres the damn orb laying at the bottom! Yup, I ran the Radeon at 180 for I don't know how long with no cooling what-so-ever.
I ended up attaching it with Artic silver, and some Gel Superglue around the edges. I had to grind off the Blorbs mounting tabs to get it to fit right. ALso, another tip that someone on this board posted ... is that if you mount the HSF to low on the GPU, it will hit on the #1 pci slot, not letting you fully seat the card. So be carefull to get it on there straight.

[img="[URL]http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=895064&a=6514152&p=43711845&Sequence=0&res=high[/URL]"]

 

[LoCuTuS]

i think i'll get the herc GF2 MX instead...