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I am going to buy a card within this upcoming week, it looks like the GEFORCE4 TI4200 isn't going to be coming out until sometime in late March/early April, so that's out of the picture. The GEFORCE3 TI500 is still almost $100 more than I'm willing to spend(200 or less) so it looks like it's going to be the RADEON 8500 OEM or either the GEFORCE3 TI200.

There is the RADEON 8500, which I would be getting the OEM version (25 clock) for about $180. Not many choices at that price. I don't think I can get any other extra feature or the 275 clock that the retail has for under $200, I might be able to get VIVO for $190 but it might be some kind of error because when I go to the websites, they have different prices.

On the flip side, I can get a 128 DDR version (which doesn't help THAT much, i've heard, but might in the future)of the GEFORCE3 TI200 for around $195 or a 64 DDR version for about $140. To get a Gainward TI450 Golden Sample, which I've heard overclocks well, it'll cost $160 or so. There are many different brand names available at around $140, including Apollo, Palit Daytona, AOpen, Inno3d, and MSI. Does anybody know how any of those do overclocked, and if it compares to how the Gainward Ti450 does? Also, which one of those brands would you recommend if I didn't overclock?

Thanks for your input.

I am not a Ati lover, in fact i will be getting a Geforce 4 4600, but also when on a budget u have to get the bang for ur buck so i would get the radeon 8500 (ever tho ati has a serious driver problem!) because i hear ati is "suppost" to be finishing a very good driver in about a month....

I would say go for the 8500. Wow my friends would be shocked to hear that as normally I'm quite pro nVidia. But the 8500 seems to have more power for the long term then the Ti200, especially if you are not going to overclock. Ati has had a drivers problem but it seems to be far better then it has in the past and I haven't seen to many major complaints as of late. I just think that over the long term the 8500 will give you a better bang for your buck.

Agree with the last two posts. Go for the 8500.

I agree I'd go with the 8500, I just picked one up and I love it. Of course it replaced a Matrox G400 so almost anything is better then that.

I have also been thinking of getting a Radeon 8500 for my new system that I'm building. When I was talking to my friend, who has been building for a number of years, he told me that ATI does not update their drivers very often compared to Nvidia. Is this true? I'm relatively new to the video card scene, the card I have now is a voodoo 2 I got when I bought my first pc, a 266Mhz compaq presario 4910(uggh, if i could only go back to '98 with what I know now) so it's been a while since I had to evaluate one. How good is ATI driver updates and are they just as often as Nvidia. If this is true I will get a Gainward Geforce3 Ti200 128MB, it may not be as future proof as the Radeon, but I'll definitely have the correct updated drivers to play the new games that come out without a ton of bugs. Please let me know if this is true and what your opinion is.

ATi may not update theirs as much as what Nvidia does but they have been better lately with updates compared to what they used to be.

I must be old fashioned - I'd still take the nVidia over the ATi. I've been burnt with ATi too often....

checkout Best Buy Radeon 8500(retail) $199

I dont think this should even be a discussion if it were 8500 or Ti4600 then ya maybe, but in this case its plain and simple 8500 all the way.

its not that simple, everyone wishes it was, but for the simple fact that ati is somewhat shakey with there driver support, u kinda have to think where your money is best spent i know i dont have 200-400 bucks to waste....but because the dualie is starting to cut a hole in my wallet i think i will be getting a 8500 or a 8800

8500 here...

Current original Radeon user, driver is ok..
No big issues on games that I play~~!

How much performance gain would I get going from an ATI All in Wonder 128 Pro 32Mg card to the Radeon 8500?

System:
Athlon 900 processor
Gigabyte K7Z Mobo
Apollo KT133A chipset
256 Mg SDRAM
Win 98SE

Fubar,

Your mileage may vary, but I'd say the speed increases would be considerable in 32bit color and high resolution gaming. You are talking about going from a TNT/TNT2 class card to a GF3/4 class card. That's 3-4 product cycles of hardware. The only thing that would really hold you back would be the CPU, but 900mhz should be fine for a while.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Vrock on 2002-02-25 11:24 ]</font>

I'm not going to say that there isn't a driver issue with the Radeon cards, but I don't believe that it's of the magnitude some would have others believe. Given that there are fewer resources available to those with Radeon cards (when compared with GeForce3s), if an installation problem does occur, there's less people to turn to for answers. The Radeon 8500 isn't a bad card by any stretch (it had the best numbers in the 3DMark2001 benchmarks, prior to the debut of the GF4 4400 & 4600) and it was meant to compete with a GeForce3 Ti500, but costs as much as a Ti200.

I bought a Radeon 8500 on Sunday, to take advantage of a rebate offer right now ($139.99 after $50 mail-in rebate); for that price, I couldn't pass it up. I had my eyes set initially on a Gainward GF3 Ti200 for about $10 more at newegg, but the 8500 offered better image quality in business applications and DVD playback. As long as it plays Unreal II without a hitch, I don't care which card sits on my mobo.

If you have to get one right away, go for the 8500. I must admit that the frame rates are about the same on the GF3 but the radeon just makes it all look so pretty

Personally I'd wait a little bit and grab a shiny new radeon 8800 or maybe go for a GF4. I want to see a comparison of the two though.

Best Buy has the 8500's on sale this week for $139.00. I bought one a few days ago, and it is really amazing. I recommend it over the Ti200 (I also have a Gainward GF3Ti200. It's good, but the ATI is *much* better).

not much graphics experience here but it seems that the R8500 is a pretty good choice, teh drivers are improving, apparently, and coming out sooner. and its also alot cheaper than comparable gf3s - i bought one yesterday for ~$155 (shipping included).