Gigabyte MAYA AP64D-H Radeon 8500 Deluxe

[DiscoStu]

Just posted a very on the Gigabyte Radeon 8500 Deluxe.

http://www.radiativenz.com/reviews/gigabyteradeon8500deluxe/

Comments welcome :)

[Wibber]

*waves gigabyte flag*
not brave enough to pencil trick eh? don't blame you, sounds dodgy...good review :) I hate it when reviewers don't compare oc'd card to oc'd card

[DiscoStu]

Didn't really see the need to pencil it when it got to 300/600 without much help. Plus, I'm pretty sure it could go higher still as well........

The first Gigabyte card I've played with and I'm impressed :)

[Dean]

Hello From Canada,

I saw the link to your review posted at www.hardocp.com in the US.

Great review BTW!! I bet you could have squeezed more of an
OC on that card though. From the looks of it that thing was made to crank up :)

Dean

[DiscoStu]

Originally posted by Dean
Hello From Canada,

I saw the link to your review posted at www.hardocp.com in the US.

Great review BTW!! I bet you could have squeezed more of an
OC on that card though. From the looks of it that thing was made to crank up :)

Dean
Welcome - Always nice to see some [H] faces around. :)

I will definetly be cranking her up a bit more, but needed to get the review posted. But don't you worry, I'll let you guys know how far she'll go ;)

[KingJackal]

That is a rather impressive bundle with the card.

Though I think you'd have to be either an ATi fan, or looking for the features the Radeon series offer over GeForce cards have to go for that card.

It performs similarily to a Ti500, perhaps a smidgen better - but at around $600, you're basically talking Ti4400 prices! And that is a much faster card.

Now I KNOW that in the US they price a lot lower than Ti4400's, and I KNOW that speed isn't the only thing, and I KNOW that's not a fair comparison - but perhaps it would be nice to stress what the card DOES do particularily well at?

2D output, DVD acceleration ( GeForce4 Ti's lack this. It's an easy test - just try playing a fast DVD on a really slow rig ;) :D ), the bundle etc?

Just my $0.02 :)

[DiscoStu]

After rechecking the prices you can get these for closer to the $550 mark from a few places.

Plus, as I'm sure you know KJ :p, the recent ATi drivers are very impressive (as I'll illustrate once I've got some free time...........mmmm..........free time.......mmmmm) and the performance jump puts it well above Ti500 levels, closer to the Ti4200 level.

[Ragnor]

yup just below the Ti4200 with the new drivers... still too pricey for its class though...

[Geek4Life]

*runs off to read review*

I'll let you know what I think.

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by Ragnor
yup just below the Ti4200 with the new drivers... still too pricey for its class though...

Yeah - that's what I mean.

New drivers this, almost GeForce4 that - let's face it, the moment the R300 hits, the GeForce4's are gonna get a huge driver boost. And I don't think the R8500 will keep up....

It's the extra's, not the performance, that make this card so attractive. ;)

[DiscoStu]

Originally posted by KingJackal
It's the extra's, not the performance, that make this card so attractive. ;)
True - but it isn't often that you find a card with both good extras & good performance for a reasonable price, which I believe this is :)

[RockBoy]

The 8500 was never ever tauted as a Geforce 4 Killa ?!?!

the fact that it comes close is credit to the card

when it was released it was direct competition to the Ti 500 and it was a little slower at that stage

teh R250 will compete with the Gayforce 4 and then the R300 will make them look silly and the NV30

the only thing to save Nvidia now is that they may actually USE some 3dfx tech..

NB the views expressed are entirely unfounded opinionated views held by the author and in no way reflect the opinions of RadiativeNZ or the Crew :D

Cheers RB

p.s thats why they wont let me review vid cards :(