The perfect card for the rest of us
Written: Jul 03 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: best picture, good connections, stable, good drivers
Cons: mediocre game performance
The Bottom Line: This card is an easy sell to anyone who is not looking to play the latest games. It has great stability and the best video quality in the industry.
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| claymore_01's Full Review: ATI RADEON 8500, (64 MB) AGP Video Card |
The Radeon 8500 is now hardly the new kid on the block. It wasn't even that new when I got it a little over a year ago, but I think it is still a good card to consider for purchase.
I am not a gamer. I used to game a little, and I will still load up an older game every now and then, but on the most part I use my computer for surfing, word processing and watching dvds. This card is perfect for those jobs, and I have not even considered upgrading in the near future.
The picture quality on this card is second to none. If you are used to some onboard graphics solution or an Nvidia card, you will not believe the clarity that you get out of your monitor with a Radeon card. For long stints of paper writing, it sure makes a huge difference.
The Radeon series also has the best dual display setup in the industry, allowing you to connect two monitors, one regular and one digital or both standard. You can also connect one monitor and a T.V. The retail box includes the connectors and a nice long S-video cable for this purpose. All of these connectors and the board are really sturdy, you can tell this was not made by some second rate company that bought the chips.
While the ATI dvd player that comes with the card is not so hot, most major software dvd players come with support for the hardware playback on the Radeon, giving the highest quality dvd playback I have ever seen. I would have no hesitation recommending this card for a PC based home theatre setup, running through the S-Video cable. The colors are rich and accurate, and the details are incredible.
If all the gaming you do is the occasional round of Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 or Counterstrike, you will find the Radeon 8500 to be entirely adequate. It is no longer the fastest card on the market, but it does have solid 3d support for slightly older games. Of course, if you want to play the latest games, you have to upgrade your video card every year or so, and this card is obviously not for you.
There were a lot of complaints about the drivers for the Radeon series a couple of years ago. I am happy to say that ATI has really gotten its act together, and is now tossing out great driver revisions every few weeks. The slightly older cards are especially stable, and I have had no crashes or video problems in months. Installation is easy, just get the latest revisions from the ATI webpage and install those directly. The card was physically easy to install as well. It's not a small card, but it fit fine in my case, and it does not require a separate power plug like a lot of the new video cards.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 90
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Epinions.com ID:
claymore_01
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Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
I am a movie loving English Literature student currently getting my master's degree.
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