8500Le questions?

[pugwash35]

HI im from the UK and just bought a Radeon 8500Le, now it was my understanding that the le should run at engine clock 250 and memory at 250 (i.e. 500 ddr), correct.

after installing powerstrip my the clock is running at 254, ok but the memory is at 220 (ie. 440 mhz) is this normal? i think v slow, the chips arent the best they are 4ns chips mage by samsung i think.
also all the pictures i see on the net have the ram on the front and back of the card, my only has then on the normal side with the gpu. wheres the ones on the back!!! is this correct

any guidance appreciated (or links)

cheers

[Darren Wilson]

was it OEM or Retail? Built By ATI or Powered by ATI? There is differences like this between the different models even though they are still called 8500LE.

The OEM Built by ATI cards are clocked at a lower speed on both memory & core than the retail boxed versions. The 3rd party Powered by ATI cards also tend to be rebadged OEM specification Powered By ATI cards.

[pugwash35]

yeh sorry forgot, its only powered by ati but it is a retail card from super grace (not the best i know!!) i know the memory is low but can overclock if i have to

just a bit worried about not having memeory modules on the reverse of the card

cheers for quick resonse!!

[Darren Wilson]

That will be the answer then. The Powered by ATI cards are cards built (similar to how nVidia license their chips out) to 3rd parties to build their products around. To make the cards cheaper than the original product, the 3rd parties tend to lower the specs on them (without telling the end user) which in turn makes the end user believe they are buying a bargain. The cheaper nVidia cards by generic companies are made in similar fashion also. This also explains why some companies products perform a lot better than a seemingly identical product from another company.
The 8500LE though (even the lower clocked versions) are still very good cards, & will still play even the most intensive games at a good rate (rest of machine specs pending).

[pugwash35]

ok cheers for the advice, it gets 7439 nakrs in 3d mark 2001 so its not too bad

cheers for the advice (still worried about the missing chips off the back though, havent seen that on any others, but anyway cheers)

[Six Eyed Smily]

the thing that will help you most is good drivers. ati make good cards, but release abysmal drivers. they make their drivers to give good 3dmark scores, and really dont care about how they work in real life. their tech support is a joke as well - all you get is an automated answer which is often not even slightly connected to the question you asked :(
go to <a href="http://www.rage3d.com" target="_blank">www.rage3d.com</a> and download some unoficial drivers (and the overclocking util if you can be bothered). i reccomend either the ati betas or the omega hacks - there doesnt seem much to choose between them - they often have slightly different features but have about the same performance and stability (btw - this is just through observation. I have no benchmarks to support this - i have not the time and may machine is not set up for it)