ATI Radeon 8500 LE Question

[DukeDiablo]

Dear Forum-

I just recently ordered an ATI Radeon 8500 LE Video Card from NewEgg.com. I noticed in the customer reviews that the "LE" version is slightly underclocked at 250MHz instead of the retail version's 275MHz clock speed.
I read in the customer reviews that several people had "flashed" the BIOS, or found another way to overclock the LE version to Retail version specifications.
My question for this post is... Is this process very expensive/difficult to perform and more importantly does a 25MHz difference translate into a real performance difference in video cards?
Thanks for any feedback/information on this issue.
I hope everyone has a fantastic New Year!

Oh and if anyone is interested NewEgg.com is offering the Radeon 8500 LE for $179.00 with FREE standard shipping(3-4days). This is obviously not the retail version so I wouldn't expect anything more than the bare card, drivers, and S-Video cable.

Have a good one.

[DrZaius]

Hi DukeDiablo,

Some sources have listed the card specs as:

Radeon 8500 retail: 275MHz
Radeon 8500 OEM   : 250MHz
Radeon 8500 LE    : 230MHz ?

It's still unclear. Either way, it's fairly easy to overclock to retail or OEM specs. Check out the utils at Rage3D for more info. And there will be an increase in performence, but most of the time it's just for higher scores in benchmark apps, you don't really see a big difference. Hope that helps.

[DukeDiablo]

Thanks Dr. Zaius-

I appreciate the information, and I'm sure I won't be able to tell the difference during gaming....nevertheless, I'll probably end up wanting to overclock it... haha.

[DukeDiablo]

Just to update this post information...

The card I received is indeed clocked at 230 MHz...
After using the Rage3D Tweak I was able to achieve a stable memory and clock speed of 252MHz; however, I found I had higher frame rates in the stock form.
I used Nascar 4 as a guide, which may not be the best benchmark; however, I have decided that 230 is more advantageous for my particular card...the Radeon 8500 LE. Have a good one.

[muddog]

speaking of flashing 8500 oems to retail clock speeds, has anyone actually done this? is it safe to do this? i found this one utility that lets you create a new bios for the card or something like that.
you can find the whole package here:

http://www.xcl-clan.com/download.php3?id=62

thanks!!

[lil Jimmie]

Has anyone run this card with Windows XP? I will be doing an upgrade soon with both video and audio cards. I really would like to go with the ATI Radeon 8500, but would like to avoid any trouble if at all possible.
Oh, and the sound card will be the SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum.

TIA

[BeardedClem]

Originally posted by lil Jimmie Has anyone run this card with Windows XP? I will be doing an upgrade soon with both video and audio cards. I really would like to go with the ATI Radeon 8500, but would like to avoid any trouble if at all possible. Oh, and the sound card will be the SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum. TIA

I'm running a Radeon 8500 on a Win98/WinXP dual boot and so far it runs just as well on XP as in win98.

The only thing is WinXP has some games running at 60Hz monitor refresh (so far Q3 engine games for sure)so I use power strip to force 75Hz and it works fine. I believe this happens with nVidia cards too if someone could confirm that.