Why NOT 8500LE?

[francisamf]

I've noticed everyone saying "don't get the LE"?

Why not?

Is it simply because it is clocked at 250/500?

I would try to overclock it anyway to at least stock 275/550.

Is a 250/500 worse than a GF3 Ti200 for example?

The reason I ask is I can get a Hercules 8500LE retail but cannot find a 8500.

Answers?

 

[elysium]

I belive the reason paople say: don't buy 8500LE is becaus it is ratet lower (250/250) then the 8500 (275/275), but there is not much difference in price. I haven't seen the 8500 here in Norway either (just the LE), but if you hang in there for a week or two, you will get the 8500 probably cheaper than the LE today.

I'm not sure about the gf3 ti200, but I've heard it beats it big time. It's more fair to rate it against the gf4.

Ely

 

[funnyperson1]

an 8500 LE is much better than the Ti200....it is comparable to a normal Geforce3 actually a little faster.....a retail 8500 is on par with a Ti500

 

[Arkaine23]

8500LE

some of these are clocked at 230/460... some have reduced vcore and vdimm voltages.... and they may have memory that's 4ns instead of 3.6ns... all cards are different, it depends on who made the card.

For my money (@$186 for LE or $250 for regular 8500), the Gigabyte MAYA 8500 (not out yet) would be the way to go... its 275/550 and is supposed to have 3.3ns memory. But I need to get some solid info to confirm those specs. V-tuner hardware monitoring looks very cool... adjust fan speed, mem/core clocks, view gpu & memory temps and voltages. I think it has cooling for both sides of the cards too, but not sure. Still researching and looking for reiviews.

 

[francisamf]

Thanks for the input(s) everyone.

Darkaine, here's a link to a review of the Maya card.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles/gigar8500/index.html

Does anyone know if a Crystal Orb will fit on a Radeon8500 card? I don't see the pushpins.

Sorry if it has been posted previously.


Cheers,
Francis

 

[Arkaine23]

Maya 8500

Thanks for the link! Looks pretty sweet to me. Too bad the memory is 3.6ns and not the 3.3ns I was hoping for. Now I just need to find out how much worse the LE version of the card is.

 

[AgEnT0140]

yeah, i just ordered an 8500LE clocked at 230. it was only $119, same as a GF2 TI200.

 

[hrmchan]

First of all, buying technology is like buying fresh fruit... value is in the TIMING of the PURCHASE, with depreciation with time in a High Order.

With Retail 8500 64 pricing dropping like a 40 yr women's ]
brea#ts, it hard not to buy it given the available performance stock out of the box and OC'ing.

8500 LE and LELE are **** and worthless @ $99 - 109
8500 OEM 250 are still valued at @ $119-124 (down from $180)
8500 Retail 275 are BEST value at $139 (down from $299)

For the economically, OEM can be made retail with fairly little effort is always an option. But with the pricing only a$20, 25 bucks apart ... why would you wish to CHANCE the damage of Flashing the BIOS. Not that FLASHING programs are bad, but the user actions are normal FAILURE points. $20 is worth the insurance.

 

[Derevirn]

I would prefer the retail edition but if you can't find a retail card just buy the LE as i did . No really big difference in performance

 

[francisamf]

Thanks again to all who replied with advice.

Could one of you also advise on whether a Crystal Orb will be attachable (pushpins or Superglue+ASIII).

Finally, also, I would like to know if the Thermaltake Memory sinks that come packaged with the HeatSpreaders will fit on a Radeon 8500 card. I see in the pictures that there is some sort of a capacitor or something between the top two mem chips.

Thanks!
Francisamf

 

[Thaibog]

Memory heatsinks

http://www.plycon.com/heatsink.htm

These look great..I have a radeon 8500 OEM it has 4ns memory and was clocked @ 250/225 default..I have managed to push it to 280 / 241 before getting artifacts in 3dmark.the card was real cheap and the effects and picture are amazing. I am working on tweaks to get my 3d mark over 8000 but 7998 is the most i can manage.
Ok it isn't the greatest 8500 but is still a great card for £80 less than the retail @ £214.

Compared to my mx 400 ..well what can you say hehehe.

XP1800 @1670mhz 144/x11.5
Asus A7V 266-E motherboard
768MB of PC2100 DDR RAM
IBM GPX60 ATA 100 7200rpm
SAMSUNG 40GB ATA 100 7200rpm
Volcano7 heatsink with artic silver3
radeon 8500 oem 278/238
Flatron 295-t 17" monitor

 

[Bubba]

No the holes for the pushpins on the corb do not line up with the ones on the card.The only way is to use some thermal epoxy or some of that tape without any HS paste.