Ive read reviews on both cards and the only big differance I can see is that the GF3 has a better bumpmapping support.

When I get my next card, I dont plan to upgrade for a bit so I wanna make a good choice.

Can I get some feedback and a few reasons why you choose the card you reccomend?

Thanxx in advance

quote:Originally posted by VampiricuS:
Ive read reviews on both cards and the only big differance I can see is that the GF3 has a better bumpmapping support.

When I get my next card, I dont plan to upgrade for a bit so I wanna make a good choice.

Can I get some feedback and a few reasons why you choose the card you reccomend?

Thanxx in advance

Buy the radeon 2 8500

#1 cheaper
#2 faster
#3 more features
#4 dual monitor support
#5 best DVD playback around
#6 has a very nice box

quote:Originally posted by VampiricuS:
Ive read reviews on both cards and the only big differance I can see is that the GF3 has a better bumpmapping support.

When I get my next card, I dont plan to upgrade for a bit so I wanna make a good choice.

Can I get some feedback and a few reasons why you choose the card you reccomend?

Thanxx in advance

there aren't many reviews of the R8500 out yet, so it's hard to recommend it now.

but, feature-wise, the R8500 offers more than any other card, speed is most likely going to rival all GF3s (including Ti500), at a lower price.

pros of R8500: n-patches in hardware (truform), most likely more verstaile FSAA implementation than a GF3, higher specs, therefore more headroom for improvement via driver update. DX8.1 and OpenGL 1.3 in HW.

cons: very new card, first series, no experience base established yet.

pros of GF3: half a year old -> drivers tweaked, linux support, various OEMs with offering lots of different variants, while ATi has yet to establish a solid OEM base.

cons: not as modern, curved surface implementation (r-patches - polynomial surfaces - instead of n-patches) unlikely to see wide use due to coding requirements.

quote:Originally posted by Newbie-Overclocker:
Buy the radeon 2 8500

#1 cheaper
#2 faster
#3 more features
#4 dual monitor support
#5 best DVD playback around
#6 has a very nice box

I think the majority of the population have only one monitor plugged into their computer so they don't really care about it (like myself).

I don't understand all the fuss about the dual monitor support.

DVD support ok, but I prefer watching DVDs on my television screen.

Just my 2 cents.

whada mean the only difference in radeon 8500 and gf3 is bumpmapping? i mean idon't really care about dual monitor adn some other stuff the radeon has, but the radeon has that tru form thing which kindda intrigues me...why? because i play a little bit of counter-strike (and i'll probably play more if i ever get a braoband connection) truform is supported in CS, though i bet i won't notice a TON of difference, but it is still nice to know

i'll probably wait a bit until reviews come out and price settle, but i am lookin at a ti200 or the readeon 8500. the new ti's contain like 3d texturing or something over the old gf3 so you might consider one of those (the ti 500 is kidnda prohibitively expensive though)...

oh yea and if you are not considering upgrading for a while, i would not be surprised to see nvidia incorporate some radeon features in the future (duh, that's how the industry works). Though any new product from nvidia would probably have to be next sprin which is a way's off...

quote:Originally posted by jfu_6018:
whada mean the only difference in radeon 8500 and gf3 is bumpmapping? i mean idon't really care about dual monitor adn some other stuff the radeon has, but the radeon has that tru form thing which kindda intrigues me...why? because i play a little bit of counter-strike (and i'll probably play more if i ever get a braoband connection) truform is supported in CS, though i bet i won't notice a TON of difference, but it is still nice to know

i'll probably wait a bit until reviews come out and price settle, but i am lookin at a ti200 or the readeon 8500. the new ti's contain like 3d texturing or something over the old gf3 so you might consider one of those (the ti 500 is kidnda prohibitively expensive though)...

actually the shadow buffer and 3d textures works fine on old GF3's too, it was simply enabled by the Detxp's.

Vampiricus, basically (as long as the drivers are good, they work fine with my rad32ddr) if you get an 8500 you'll get ti500 or better performance for 80 bucks less.

8500

quote:Originally posted by jackburton87:
8500

I agree

Wait until more reviews are out on the 8500 to make sure that the preliminary benches we have seen are accurate and that it has stable drivers. If this card is what those preliminary benches have shown though, then I'd say the 8500 is your best bet in all categories: image quality, speed, price, features, etc.

quote:Originally posted by VampiricuS:
Ive read reviews on both cards and the only big differance I can see is that the GF3 has a better bumpmapping support.

When I get my next card, I dont plan to upgrade for a bit so I wanna make a good choice.

Can I get some feedback and a few reasons why you choose the card you reccomend?

Thanxx in advance

I'd buy it just to be 'different' that's why I bought a Diamond MX400 - no one else had one.. =)

The drivers will be good enough eventually anyway as far as I'm concerned..

All Those Resons Mentioned Above + this:
Some Guys on Rage3d Compared a lot of Gf3s oc`d @ 245/540+ With NitroGL R8500 Scores,the GF3s Is still have less 3DMarks than the R8500(when both use a AMD 900Mhz),the R85K beats it in every thing (Exclud`n Nature....)..and its $100 less...
They were use`n the Stock Drivers (7197)
and If U don`t know Its Bundeld With thease games:
Half-Life Uplink (Truform enhanced thru OpenGL)
Team Fortress Classic (Truform enhanced thru OpenGL)
Counterstrike (Truform enhanced thru OpenGL)
(Check Rage3d.com)

quote:Originally posted by [S|iver]:
I think the majority of the population have only one monitor plugged into their computer so they don't really care about it (like myself).

I don't understand all the fuss about the dual monitor support.

Ahh my friend let me enlighten you. , I specifically bought my MX cuz it was a dual display. Its beautiful for 2 things, surfing the web, and any time you're doing work (development, design). With gaming... theres no point.

Now heres how I set it up. The smaller monitor had the task bar, all my desktop icons, outlook open constantly, AIM, ICQ, and a system monitor all open all i had to do was look. The second monitor was my main surfing screen... i surf there, find something I like drag the window to the smaller screen to "store" and keep surfing on the big one. It was a GLORIOUS thing, and made using the computer a helluva lot more fun. And with coding? Forget about it, one window had IE the other had good ol Visual Studios, no alt-tab for me no sir!

Now that being said... I got bored of it after a month and used the monitor on another system... go figure.

Another advantage is that the TV-Out runs independantly from your monitor(ie different resolutions and refresh rates), and the tv-out is its own display not a duplicate of the monitor.

well if it was me i would get radeon 8500
only becuz TruForm impresses me

quote:Originally posted by VampiricuS:
Ive read reviews on both cards and the only big differance I can see is that the GF3 has a better bumpmapping support.

Huh?

I cant begin to thank you guys enough for the responces! Sharky had a nice review on the 8500 as well as the elsa and im liking the 8500. Not so much for pricewize but for the fact that it seems to be an overall better card. Keep in mind im going to throw this on XP pro. If the performance is weak due to the OS then ill resort back to 98se.

Ive been to pricewatch.com and have been monitoring the prices for the 2 cards as well.

I know that Nvidia will have a card to respond to the Radion but im not really caring about that much. Im not really into supporting them much since they didnt do SH*t for me when they took over 3DFX. I was a voodoo owner for a long time with the v5 5500 being my latest. I had to resort to underground drivers just to get them to run on XP. So much for promises.

Thanxx again