Help with ati card ID

[iKevin]

Hello All,

I hope that this is the correct forum. I have a chance to buy an video card that seems to meet my requirements really inexpensively from colleague at work. (He is a constant upgrader 🙂 ). Anyway, it is an ATI Radeon 8500 - 64MB card (not an LE) and this fellow says that it is based on the rv200 gpu. I did some reading on the net to make sure that I can use it on my linux box and, as many of you probably know, that is the gpu base for the 7500.

I mentioned to him that this is the gpu for the 7500 and he insisted that it is an 8500 and he will try to find the box. He seemed quite knowledgeable about the issue and that most 8500/8500LE are based on the r200.

I think I am going to buy because regardless of the gpu, it will be a huge upgrade from my matrox millennium. However, is this some kind of weird early 8500 ATI card or is this fellow wrong about the gpu.

Thanks
Kev

 

[cleeve]

You're both not quite correct:

The Radeon 7500 is based on the R100 GPU. It's basically an overclocked Radeon DDR.

The Radeon 8500 is based on the R200. It's quite a bit more powerful than the R100 GPUs, and even more powerful than the newer Radeon 9000/9100/9200s based on the RV250 GPUs.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9500 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(hardmodded 9500, o/c 322/322)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>2600+</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 2400+ w/143Mhz fsb)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>4,055</b></font color=red>

 

[cleeve]

Uhoh, looks like I'm slightly off on this one. The GreatGrapeApe straightened me out:


The Radeon 7500 = R<b>V</b>200 (the V means VALUE segment)
The RV200 is basically an overclocked R100
It is based on older DirectX 7 (R100) technology

The Radeon 8500 = R200 (notice no V in there)
The R200 was Ati's ground-up new DirectX 8 flagship
It is newer and much more powerful than the RV200.
The R200 is still better than the Radeon 9000/9200, which are designated RV250/RV280 respectively

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9500 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(hardmodded 9500, o/c 322/322)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>2600+</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 2400+ w/143Mhz fsb)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>4,055</b></font color=red>