Radeon 8500 looks awesome.......

[LANcaster]

Just thought I'd write to commend ATi on their newest graphics card's utter humiliation of nVidia's GeForce3 Ti 500 - it takes an awful lot to beat that.
The Radeon 8500 seems to get between 200 and 800 more 3Dmarks (2001) than the £50 more expensive GeForce3 Ti 500 and even has a DVD-encoder chip built-in and great multi-monitor support.
Just wanted to know if anyone has got one yet and what they think of it, I have heard that the current drivers are rubbish.
I am seriously considering buying one, just wanna know other people's experiences with it.
PS. Graeme and Thomas - you should definately stock these cards!

[ling_thing]

iam probably going to be after one soon
although there seems to be a shortage of them at the mo :-(

was wantign to wait till the all-in-wonder version was released - want to see the price on it

£200 for the normal retail version is a lot cheaper than a Ge-Force 3 Ti500 (only looking at the Asus prices)

[The Pimp]

Having the Wife's Aunt & Uncle own the UK's largest ATI distributer does have it's advantages :D

I have had the pleasure of playing with the 8500 before it went on release, and it impressed me no end. The DVD playback is second to none (and actually looks better than my home DVD player does!!), the rendering speed is superb, the drivers have been causing a little bit of an uproar (especially in Quake3) due to the lowering of image quality to gain faster framerates (but nVidia have been doing this for years and nobody has complained about that), and the price is awesome for the product. This card will be a big seller in Retail format & I would suggest that you get an ATI branded retail boxed product, as the 3rd party retail 8500 range actually run a lower clock & memory speed than ATI's own retial product (the 3rd party products from FIC and DFI, for example, are actually the same specs as ATI's OEM 8500 in respect of timings). one thing I will say though is to keep your eyes out for a nice product from ATI that should be released next year using the 8500 chipset...... I have seen a pre-production card at the Distributors and it is going to create some major shockwaves in the industry, and I don't mean the A3 northbridge either. This is an actual AGP card that is going to make nVidia fans weep.

[ling_thing]

i want one now
some one please gimme

[JADS]

It'll take a lot to convince me back into an ATI product, the support and drivers of my old ATI Rage Pro was truly dire, so bad I was tempted to snap the card and ATI drivers team necks. From what I have so far ATI still haven't got good drivers, I wouldn't go near. Currently I am stuck with an Nvidia card, yawn, totally uninspiring and dull. Bring back 3Dfx!!!! rock solid drivers, bloody fast cards, staggeringly cool looking cards and a logo to die for! I'd still settle for a 3Dfx Voodoo 5 6000 inside my system, :)! Could you imagine what 3Dfx could have done with the 3GIO bus? Point to point, so could have some more SLI action... droooooool... 4, 4 way cards bolted together (16 chips)... what a total shame and total loss, best damn computer company ever. James

PS - you notice I use 3Dfx, not 3dfx, when they dropped the capital D the company seemed to lose direction.

[LANcaster]

Wayhey - I'm getting one for xmas ......... :)
Did any1 see that it beats the GeForce 3 Ti 500 by around 300 in 3D Mark 2001 @ 1024 x 768 32-bit - scary!

Merry Christmas everyone!

[[GiB] Spawny]

Hold your horses.

A few extra 3D marks don't cut any mustard with me. Lack of driver support and games that support the ATI cards extra functionality put's me off and put's my mind to rest.

I really don't see it as a gamers card?

If they were the same price you know which one you'd buy. I rest my modded case. :D

[TallChris]

I work for a large Games Publisher (Not willing to reveal any names) but anyway, I deal with a great deal of ATI customers who have problems with our games as well as other companies and the one thing it falls down to everytime is Drivers !!

When ATI employ more than two people to make drivers then I might consider one of their cards but I dont see the point in getting a really fast card when it wont work with games.

[K Hussain]

Yeah listen to my man ''[GiB] Spawny'' he sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

(PS i am a noobi hear)

[LANcaster]

Well, my newly upgraded comp gets 8129 3D Marks (2001) which is not bad for £219, also all of my games work superbly on it - if there are any driver problems then they arn't affecting me.
I'll post any problems on the forum.

[[GiB] Spawny]

Just another thought.

The Ti200 Version is what all the overclockers are raving about, as it can be overclocked easily.

These cards come in at the £150 mark and in my opinion can not be over looked.

Link for Proof only! (http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk/browseproducts.php?basket_session=4911cd857926920a 44c119bb1132a2a0&categoryid=9)

[LANcaster]

I admit the Ti200 does look like good value for money, but I'd still rather have my Radeon 8500!

[[GiB] Spawny]

The world would be a dull place if we all liked the same things.Apart from that we wouldn't have anything to talk about here :D

[Dremel_Freak]

http://www.pcpowerzone.co.uk/images/rad8500/9030_3dm.gif

Good enough? I've owned a few GF3's and the 8500 kicks ass. No GF3 I had could get me over 9k in 3DMark2001 but the 8500 did, and I still have some tweaks to go! The card overclocked to 300/600 BTW! As far as drivers go, I used the latest XP drivers and have had no problems with anything whatsoever, everything runs great and aawesome image quality too! If I was offered either a Ti500 or an 8500 I would pick the 8500.

[Freedom]

Well the Ti500 is the best i got a new i and i get a score of 10395 on 3d mark 2001

P4 2.0 2048 Mb Ram(RD800)