Its holdiday upgrading time! :)

[Frost]

Hey guys, I've been gone for quite awhile, and glad to see you all again I've been pretty busy lately, and up untill recently my computer access has been very limited because my computer had been broken. Its working now though and in need of some serious upgrades! I have a few questions though. I'm thinking of either getting a radeon 8500, a geforce ti500, or a RAdeon8500DV if I can afford it. The only problem is that I haven't seen a Radeon8500DV at a reasonable price anywhere. Also I was reading about the radeon 8500 vs the GeForceTi500 and it seems that the better card is the GeForce. I'm a pretty big ati fan and am currently using a Radeon 64meg ViVo. I would have no problem going to a GeForce as long as its visuals are as good as the Radeon I'm using now, or better. Also the Abit KT7A-Raid won't have any problem accepting an Athlon XP would it? I'm thinking of getting either at 1700 or 1800, overclocking and dumping in 512megs of pc150 I allready have the Abit on rma, so all I'd ahve to pay for is the ram, and cpu. The t-bird, mobo, and ram I have now are going to be going into my dads computer for Christmas

[smb]

If it's working, just leave it alone !!! You know what happened last time you fiddled with it

[vwkess]

frosty resurfaces! As far as visuals go for the geforce Ti, the 3D is sweet and so is the 2D --a definate improvement over my old original geforce. Don't know how it compares to the Radeon though, as I haven't seen it.

[dadx2mj]

Good to see you back Frost. I say go for the GeForce if for no other reason than the quality of the drivers.

[wvjohn]

hey dude

i went from a radeon vivo - 23xx 3dmarks to an 8500 73xx 3d marks

it wan't too painful

with the smoothvision enabled, the quality is better than the vivo

haven't seen the ti-500 so i couldn't say about it - check the latest shootout at ferengitech

[nexus_7]

I dont know about the ti500 but my 8500 is totally awsome and the new drivers only make it better. I havent had One problem with it and win2k yet. I wouldnt mind a DV myself but like U said Insanly expensive and I dont really need the TV stuff anymore cause I have a monitor/tv combo already. anyways I think with the Price the ati has over the nvidia there is NO contest.

welcome back btw.

Greg

[Diggrr]

Hey Frost, good to meet ya.

Your question about the KT7A-Raid running the XP made me curious, so I went to check it out. (I got one too) Their faq says that the XP runs fine on version 1.3 boards or later ONLY! There is a bios update, but it seems only to make bios report the correct name on the processor, they have bios settings to use the processor without the bios flash if you so desire.
http://www.abit-usa.com/eng/faq/kt7a-raid.htm

Makes me sad really, my board is a version 1.0 and thus won't run the XP. Sometimes it sucks to be an early adopter.

As for the Radion question, I couldn't say for sure about the new one (8500dv) but I could not get the first Radeon 64 DDR to run on my KT7A-Raid. It kept picking a fight with the SBLive I have. I ended up taking it back and getting the Matrox G450 dual head. I don't game anyway, and the dual head is KEWL.
Awesome DVD playback in the livingroom. Now if my desk was only big enough for another 19" monitor....hmmmm.

[Frost]

--

smb: ha, yeah I know, but besides my friend killing my harddive, I've been pc component murder free for like 4 months

vwkess: hehe, yeah, I have a geforce ddr, and its 3d is decent, but the radeon is much nicer If the 8500 is even better I'd be amazed Same with the Ti500.

dadx2: thanx, uhm I would but I'm thinking it might be a little expensive. The Ti200 seems in range, but I dunno if it is better than the 8500??

nexus: I was kinda thinking the same thing, with the 8500 being so much cheaper than the Ti500 I'll probably get that.

wvjohn: hey, that sounds pretty sweet, I'm reinstalling my 3dmarks tonight on winxp, I'll see how my radeon t-bird 1.1 crap as mobo bench out

diggrr: good to meet ya too man, that sux that you can't get an xp I just rma'd my kt7a the other day so I'll have to wait and see what they send me... If they send me pre 1.3 I'll be pissed!

[Kakarot]

Go with the 8500... its just as fast if not faster than the Ti500 with its new drivers. Plus the 8500 has more room to grow performance wise than the Ti500.

[VidmanII]

Radeon 8500DV is only going to be clocked at 230/190. When compared to the 8500 (275/275) or even the 7500 ( 290/230) , that's pretty slow. For more info check this thread out as some ATI guy explains why.........

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread. ... genumber=1