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ATI Radeon 8500 Videocard Review
ATI Radeon 8500 Videocard Review - PCSTATS
In fact, the Radeon 8500 had so much potential it was dubbed a "GeForce3 killer".
 83% Rating:   
Filed under: Video Cards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: ATI Mar 26 2002   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Video Cards > ATI Radeon 8500

Benchmarks and Overclocking

We never leave enough alone and of course overclocked the Radeon until blue smoke shot out from every memory IC and the computer spit out the red hot video card.... well no, but we did 'tweak it nicely.' Without any additional cooling and without using the "Pencil Trick" we were able to push the Radeon 8500 from a clock speed of 275 MHz core to 305 MHz. Memory was upped from 550 MHz to 612 MHz.

This is a pretty decent overclock considering that we were still using the stock ATI (who here thinks ATi should learn a lesson from nVidia an use sexier heatsinks?). The memory did get quite warm during testing and we're pretty sure that it could have gone a bit higher if we had added ramsinks, which we didn't do.

test system specs:

computer hardware:

processor: AthlonXP 1900+
Clock Speed: 1.6 GHz clocked at 1.7 GHz for testing (10x170)
Motherboards: Epox 8KHA+
Chipsets: VIA KT266A
Videocard:

MSI GeForce 3 Ti500 (MS-8854) (GeForce3 Ti500 240/500)
MSI GeForce 2 Ti (MS-8836) (GeForce2 Ti 250/400)
ATi Radeon 64 MB VIVO (Radeon 183/366)

ATi Radeon 8500 (Radeon 8500 275/550)
ATi Radeon 8500 (Radeon 8500 305/612)

Sound Card: N/A
Network Card:

N/A

Memory:

256MB Corsair PC2400 CAS2 DDR

Hard Drive: Samsung SV6004H 5400RPM UDMA100 60GB
CDROM: Panasonic 48x CD-ROM CR-594-B
Floppy:

Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive

Heatsink: Thermaltake Dragon Orb3
PowerSupply: Enermax 431Watt
Software Setup Windows 98SE
VIA 4in1 4.37V
DetonatorXP 22.80
Radeon 9009
DirectX 8.1
Benchmarks

3DMark2000 Ver 1.1
3DMark2001 SE
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Quake III Arena Ver 1.17
Serious Sam 2

3DMark2001SE with AA

3DMark2000 Ver 1.1 Source: MadOnion

3DMark2000 is still a popular benchmarks for evaluating 3D performance even though it is getting a bit dated. 3DMark2000 continues to provide benchmark results that gauge DirectX7 performance and hardware transformation and lighting that older games still use. Version 1.1 ensures more reliable functionality with hardware and operating systems that were released after the launch of 3DMark2000 in December 1999.

Higher numbers denote better performance.

3DMark2000 v1.1 Benchmark Results
Video Card 3DMarks Ranking
1. GeForce2 Ti 11101
2. GeForce3 Ti500 12964
3. Radeon 64 DDR 6115
4. ATi Radeon 8500 12758
5. ATi Radeon 8500 (oc'ed) 13297

Unlike it's older brother the Radeon 8500 does very well in 3DMark2000 because the whole card is being used. The older Radeon has one texture unit left over doing nothing. Unfortunately it looks like the default benchmark is more of a CPU tester now.

3DMark2001SE Source: MadOnion

3DMark2001SE is the latest installment in the 3DMark series by MadOnion. By combining DirectX8 support with completely new graphics, it continues to provide good overall system benchmarks. 3DMark2001SE has been created in cooperation with the major 3D accelerator and processor manufacturers to provide a reliable set of diagnostic tools. The suite demonstrates 3D gaming performance by using real-world gaming technology to test a system's true performance abilities. Tests include: DirectX8 Vertex Shaders, Pixel Shaders and Point Sprites, DOT3 and Environment Mapped Bump Mapping, support for Full Scene Anti-aliasing and Texture Compression and two game tests using Ipion real-time physics.

Higher numbers denote better performance.

3DMark2001SE Benchmark Results
Video Card 3DMarks Ranking
1. GeForce2 Ti 5301
2. GeForce3 Ti500 8974
3. Radeon 64 DDR 4012
4. ATi Radeon 8500 9354
5. ATi Radeon 8500 (oc'ed) 10057

The Radeon 8500 does very well in 3DMark2001SE. I wish all next generation cards offered this much performance gain (from Radeon to Radeon 8500)! Usually a score of 3000-4000 in 3DMark means DirectX 8.0 based games would be playable at 1024x768-32-bit. Note that my 3DMarks scores are damn fast without even a GeForce 4! = )

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Contents of Article: ATI Radeon 8500
 Pg 1.  ATI Radeon 8500 Videocard Review
 Pg 2.  Technology of the Radeon 8500
 Pg 3.  — Benchmarks and Overclocking
 Pg 4.  RTCW Benchmarks
 Pg 5.  QIII Arena Benchmarks
 Pg 6.  Serious Sam Benchmarks
 Pg 7.  AA Benchmarks and Conclusions

 
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