radeon 8500 64mb or ti 200 128 mb

***death-heaven*** · April 1st, 2002

I want to buy a new video card to replace my GF2 GTS and i saw that the radeon 8500 is the same price that the gf3 ti200 with 128 mb.
Witch of them I should buy since the price is almost the same here in Canada ?
Wich of them is more powerfull ?
I know that the radeon is a lot faster but has ****y drivers(for the moment !) and the ti 200 slower but better drivers !, so wich one of them is better for the future games ?

***FlyingPenguin*** · April 1st, 2002

While the 8500 is on paper faster than a GF3 Ti-200, in real word gaming it can vary depending on the game and whether you're running OpenGL or D3D.

I personally use a GF3 Ti-200 and am very happy with it. As long as you get one with Ram heatsinks it'll probably overclock as fast as a standard GF3 (mine does). I know the Visiontek and the Asus will both overclock that fast.

A few lucky souls can get one to run as fast as a Ti-500.

That's a lot of bang for the buck, plus you get the rock stability of NVidia drivers and you're already familiar with tweaking a Geforce card.

My vote is for the GF3 Ti-200, but there are other people who will tell you to go with the Radeon.

Frankly, you'll probably be happy with either one.

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The Flying Penguin
http://TheFlyingPenguin.com

... and with the lifespan of current 3D cards, it's almost like two people standing in the desert arguing over who has the better looking ice cube.
- Death2Uall (the artist formally know as "D") from 3Fingers' Forum

***GezusK*** · April 1st, 2002

I'd say the ATI Radeon 8500, as long as its the full retail speed one. The OEM versions are slower. The retail 8500 runs neck and neck with the Geforce3 Ti500, and are usually cheaper too. The 128MB won't make much difference, unless you're running at high resolutions with 4xAA on. Current games don't really have need for 128MB, textures just aren't that big yet.

While the Ti200 is a good deal, and may overclock well, the 8500 is defintely faster than a Ti200. And it looks that ATI is finally starting to do frequent driver releases.