Go from 8500 to 9250?

D

Dim-Ize

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Messages
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I completed a system restore for a friend. They had integrated video on the system, so I picked up an ATI 9250 for 29.99 + tax at CompUSA and installed it.

Frankly, I was pleased with the performance for that price.

My cousin on the other hand, has an 8500 in his rig. He likes to play games but hasn't the funds right now to upgrade to what he really wants. He would like to squeeze a bit more out of his system though.

Does the 8500 to 9250 make much difference if any?

The 9250 is:
4X/8X AGP
128 MB DDR
DX 8.1

Or is there another buy that has more improvement over the 8500 for a good return.

Thanks,
Dim-Ize
 
IIRC The 9200 and 9250 are almost the same and the 8500 is alot faster than the previous cards mentioned. The 9000 and 9000 Pro were quicker than the 9200's. ATI really messed up the ratings vs performance for the cards during that time. If your friend is saving up for a better card he's best to stick with his 8500 right now an "upgrade" to a 9250 would be useless
 
Thanks, SLVR.

Do you have any good suggestions for a budget card which might boost his performance a good bit over the 8500?

He is wanting to play Battlefield 2. He doesn't require AA or AF, just smooth framerates if possible.

Since that game isn't out yet, what about a sub 100 card for HL2 engine?

Thanks,
Dim-Ize
 
From ARP's Graphics Card Reference

8500
DX8.1
2 vertex pipes, vertex shader 1.1
4x2 pixel/texture pipes, pixel shader 1.4
Core 275 mHz, Fill rate 2200 MTexels
128bit, DDR, mem 275 mHz, bandwidth 8.8GB/s

9250
DX8.1
2 vertex pipes, vertex shader 1.1
4x1 pixel/texture pipes, pixel shader 1.4
Core 240 mHz, Fill rate 960 MTexels
128bit, DDR, mem 200 mHz, bandwidth 6.4GB/s

So, numbers wise, the 9250 is an inferior card by far.

And oddly enough, it seems like the 9250 is slower than both the 9200 and the 9200 pro.
 
8500 & 9100 > 9000 & 92xx

Templar pretty much just showed that.
 
Great!!!

Thanks for the info, guys. I called him and suggested he keep the 8500 over the 9250. It seemed like a great deal for 29.99 if it gave him any improvement.

Maybe he could find a good deal on a 9700 on Ebay.

Dim-Ize
 
Budget-oriented upgrade from 8500 would be a 9600/Pro/XT (not SE or 9550). Methinks you can find a 96Pro for about $100, anything less isn't worth a second thought.

I know this has already been resolved, but a little history lesson:
Radeon 8500=R200 (9100 also, ATI had leftovers of the 8500/8500LE)
Radeon 9000=RV250, where ATI tries to match performance of the 8500 while reducing the transistor-count, and therefore the cost.
Radeon 9200=RV280, same story as 9000.
The RV-series almost never keeps up with the non-value chip on which it's based, only the (uncrippled) 9500Pro came close to the 9700, and that was because they were actually the same chip with pipelines disabled.
 
You can probably snag a 9700 non pro or even pro for roughly 100-150 on ebay if you can find someone who will give you a deal, cost price on a sapphire 9800pro is 200bux CAD
 
Ya know if your going to spend around 100$, get a 9700 pro used/new off ebay. This upgrade would allow you to actually play dx9 games, and its within the budget we are talking about. Its the card im currently advising all people with a $100- to get. Now if you really don't want to buy off ebay, and there a lot of reason why you might not want to, go for the 9600.

-Tryqus
 
This forum is awesome! Thanks for all the help, guys.

I'll take your advice and recommend he consider either a 9700 from EBAY or a 9600 from retail.

Dim-Ize
 
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