Nickeleye Posted March 31, 2002 Share Posted March 31, 2002 Currently I've got a Voodoo 5 5500 and I want to upgrade. It appears that the Radeon 8500 is probably the better way for me to go (not enough cash for a GF4 TI series card). What do you guys think of this card? I want to be able to run my JO totally maxed out at good FPS and at a fairly high resolution... or anything above 640x480 (current resolution). This is my PC: AMD Athlon 1 GHz Abit KT7 Raid Motherboard 512 megs of RAM 80 gig 7200 RPM hard drive 40x CD-Rom 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 -edit- I also want to be able to run Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Medal of Honor very good too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickeleye Posted April 1, 2002 Author Share Posted April 1, 2002 *bump* I could really use some input here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camp3r Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 my system specs are higher than yours and i can't run "maxed" at an acceptable framerate. but using simple shadows instead of volumetric fixes that. however you said "maxed" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickeleye Posted April 1, 2002 Author Share Posted April 1, 2002 I shouldn't have said maxed. I have everthing maxed except for the shadows. I'm using simple as well and I'm only running at 640x480. The question still remains. Will the Radeon 8500 do what I want it to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spuds_88 Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 I'd be wary of the 8500 with JO right now. I've seen some posts from people with big problems with this game who have the 8500. Of course, I just happen to be one of those people. I have a 1.3Ghz Athlon, but only 256 DDR, (so our systems are comparable), and I have to run JO in 800x600, with textures on medium, and I still get considerable choppy play during fight scenes. I don't want to blame the 8500 outright, but nobody seems to know what else it could be. As for other games, I run Ghost Recon, MOHAA and Wolfenstein all jacked up in high res with options maxed. This graphics card is mint! Unless you can pour some big money out for a high-end GF4 card, I can't be more supportive of the 8500. I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmmm Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 Athlon T-bird 880. 512 MB SDRAM @ 144MHz. Radeon 8500 310/310. Game runs well for me. 1024x768x32. All the details maxed, including shadows. Framerate is perfectly playable. If only I weren't getting the S_AddLoopSounds() error, I'd be happy as can be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickeleye Posted April 1, 2002 Author Share Posted April 1, 2002 Originally posted by hmmm Athlon T-bird 880. 512 MB SDRAM @ 144MHz. Radeon 8500 310/310. Game runs well for me. 1024x768x32. All the details maxed, including shadows. Framerate is perfectly playable. If only I weren't getting the S_AddLoopSounds() error, I'd be happy as can be. What do you mean by "310/310" ? You guys have to keep in mind I'd be upgrading from a Voodoo 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmmm Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 Those are the clock speeds of my Radeon 8500 . 275 MHz core/275 (x2 b/c it's DDR) MHz RAM is the default speed for the retail and non-LE version of the card. I have overclocked it to 310/310, which by the way is a pretty wicked oc on a 8500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickeleye Posted April 1, 2002 Author Share Posted April 1, 2002 When you overclocked it was it hard to do? Did it require any extra fans or cooling? What are the rest of your system specs? What kind of performance results are you having with JK II? I'd like to run the game higher than 640x480 and with volumetric shadows if possible (I have all other options on max). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duckman Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 What software do you use to overclock an 8500? By the way, JO is running great with all the details on on my 8500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickeleye Posted April 1, 2002 Author Share Posted April 1, 2002 Duckman, how many FPS are you getting and at what screen resolution? Also, what are your system specs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duckman Posted April 2, 2002 Share Posted April 2, 2002 Nickeleye, I haven't even checked my FPS, but everything is running smoothly at 1280X1024 (I did turn down the res a bit for the cantina scene with lots of enemies). I was just wondering what you use to overclock in case I wanted to do it in the future. By the way, the volumetric shadows look odd on my system. They look fine on the ground and on objects, but not right on the characters when they are in shadows. Is that a Radeon driver thing, or are the shadows supposed to be like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickeleye Posted April 2, 2002 Author Share Posted April 2, 2002 I can't really answer your question. I don't even own a Radeon 8500. I'm researching because I want a new card and it looks like the R8500 is the way to go. I was just trying to get some input. So, I haven't overclocked anything. I haven't even thought about overclocking the ol' Voodoo 5...hehe. As far as the shadows go, I think it's a bug with the software and not the hardware. I can run the shadows on mine (not well, but I can) and they're screwed up too. I think a lot of people are having this problem. I'm hoping it's something Raven will come up with a patch for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shad0w4life Posted April 2, 2002 Share Posted April 2, 2002 R8500 LE (250/250) here on 1.2 T-bird with 704 Sdram win Xp pro JK2 runs fine, I had everything on HQ and nada problems except this sound stuttering issue that a lot of people are having(with All diff brands of sound cards and vid cards). Heck on my roomies xp 1700 with a radeon 7500 and 256 266 DDR it runs fine in HQ. Of course you could wait a few months for the R300 and get one killer card, gf4 is nothing but a beefy Gf3 that cost and arm and a leg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immortal LuD Posted April 3, 2002 Share Posted April 3, 2002 MSI 845 Ultra AR Mainboard Intel Pentium 4 1.6A NW @ 2.2GHz 1GB of PC2100 Corsair RAM Radeon 8500 (no tweaks) Driver: 6052 At 1600x1200x32, with every detail maxed, the game runs like a blast... No slowdowns, except for single player in the swamps... Man, that stage takes a toll on the video card, but it's so damn nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickeleye Posted April 3, 2002 Author Share Posted April 3, 2002 Ok, I've finally got the money to get a Radeon 8500 (64 meg). One thing I've noticed on the pricewatch website is that there seem to be two versions of this card. One version seems to only run at a 250 MHz clock speed and costs about $135, while the other version runs at 275 MHz and costs upwards of $155. What is the reason behind this and is the extra 25 MHz that big of a deal (I assume it would be good to get the one with more power)? I hope somebody will respond because I could order the card tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaNg0 Posted April 3, 2002 Share Posted April 3, 2002 Basically the ATI with 275 MHz (retail) is faster.. Some people say that you could flash the LE (250 MHz) bios to get the 275 stock but it's not to me it's not worth the risk.. Simply put the Retail 275 is what you want.. LOL, I don't have the game yet I'm waitng for my new components to show up first, and In a week or so I will more than likely be getting the ATI 8500 retail as well..So in the mean time I spend my time here posting I need to loose the Bantha Fodder tag.. [edit] Oh and if you do, look at the drivers that (sorry during edit forgot the name) buddy above your post is using they seem to work for him[/edit] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MajBlunder Posted April 3, 2002 Share Posted April 3, 2002 Nickeleye, Yes the 8500 has 2 versions, the OEM version clocked at 250/250 and the Retail which is clocked at 275/275. You can however get the OEM version running at the same speed as the Retail version by trying to updating the bios. i didnt feel like messing with it, so i opted for the retail version. you can find out more about Radeons and other ATI stuff over at http://www.rage3d.com The forums there have all ya need to know about how to do the bios thingy and other good info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmmm Posted April 3, 2002 Share Posted April 3, 2002 Sorry for taking so long to post again. Had a big exam. Abit KT7 (KT133 chipset) @ 111 MHz FSB. Athlon T-Bird 700 @ 888 MHz. 512 MB of SDRAM @ the fastest timings running @ 144 MHz (FSB + 33). Radeon 8500 Retail 275/275 @ 310/310. SB Live (bleh!) JK2 runs like a champ with everything maxed (including texture detail) at 1024x768x32. I've looked (briefly) for a console command to get a FPS readout on screen, but I haven't run across one. Every now and then I get a bit of a slowdown, but it's still playable. If I were playing online I'd bump the textures down to 'high' from 'highest.' It's totally smooth then. There are many ways to overclock a video card. I prefer a spiffy little shareware program called PowerStrip. You can get it here. Be careful not to push your card too far too fast. If you want to do it, read up on it a bit more first. The Radeons also aren't very good overclockers; so don't expect huge gains. I just got lucky. (It's also worth noting that the 8500LE version runs at 250/250 as well. ATI now has retail and LE models with 128 MB of RAM instead of 64. In all likelihood, this won't make much difference and isn't worth extra money. I suppose it could be useful for anti-aliasing and very high-quality textures.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickeleye Posted April 3, 2002 Author Share Posted April 3, 2002 To me it sounds like getting the retail version of the 8500 would be better for me. I'm not too confident in my skills with overclocking. Plus the fact that it doesn't cost too much extra to just get the retail version. I found one for $155 + 10 shipping and 10 for tax. Also, to find out your FPS, go into the console and type: cg_drawfps 1 (or 0 to turn it off) So once again I'll list my specs: Abit KT7 RAID MB AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz 512 RAM It sounds to me like I'd be best off with the retail 8500. Do you agree? I could order it tomorrow. I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing before I spend $175. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaNg0 Posted April 3, 2002 Share Posted April 3, 2002 Remember this, it's your money you are spending,you do what you feel is right.. Like I said earlier when all my stuff gets here and is running stable within a week or 2 I will be getting that same card.. It's your call my friend... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrike09 Posted April 3, 2002 Share Posted April 3, 2002 Nickeleye, I have an Abit kr7a-raid, 512DDR and a Radeon 8500. The game runs absolutely beautiful at 1024x768, with simple shadows and textures set high. Doesn't dip below 60fps most of the time. I've had problems with other games and the radeon, but now that I finally have JO, they are just a memory. It's definately a good purchase, especially at $150, can't go wrong (i paid twice that back in the day) :-( hope it works out for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickeleye Posted April 6, 2002 Author Share Posted April 6, 2002 Originally posted by hmmm Those are the clock speeds of my Radeon 8500 . 275 MHz core/275 (x2 b/c it's DDR) MHz RAM is the default speed for the retail and non-LE version of the card. I have overclocked it to 310/310, which by the way is a pretty wicked oc on a 8500. Well, I've got the card coming to me, but probably won't have it until Monday. In the mean time, I was curious about this overclocking business. First off, how do you do it. I'd like to overclock mine to 310 MHz if possible. Secondly, do you have to buy extra fans or other means of cooling the card to overclock it or can the card handle the overclocking without overheating? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrWrsXprt Posted April 6, 2002 Share Posted April 6, 2002 anybody know when the radeon 8500 128mb comes out? my dad's got one at his work that was sent to him by ati, but he's not sure when they hit the shelvse... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HC - Exar Kun Posted April 6, 2002 Share Posted April 6, 2002 The 8500 is already out in most areas... It comes in 3 different version that I have seen.... 8500 All In Wonder Radeon 8500 Radeon 8500-LE Radeon Ranging between $150 and $350 ( NET PRICES ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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