I'm set on getting the Radeon 8500 128MB for myself, as I'm expecting it would be fantastic in media development (3d animation, etc) and easily adequate in games.
Is anyone aware of the release date, or if it has already been released? I've yet to see it hit shops in Australia yet.
Also, out of curiosity, does the Radeon 8500 128MB have any other improvements over the original Radeon 8500 apart from double the RAM?
You know, I've seen some damn long descriptions of where people live, and I was just wondering how freakin' long of a location they actually allow you to write in here. Looks like it's quite a bit. Oh well, if the space is here I'll use it!!! :)
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I've seen it listed on Newegg, but I don't know if it's shipping yet or not.
I think that it's going to use TinyBGA memory packaging, which means it should run cooler and overclock better.
As for other changes, there aren't supposed to be any differences in the core, memory controller, etc. from the 64MB versions, but some are speculating that it will actually be slightly revised to fix a hardware glitch in the current version. That's being hotly debated, and it's still just speculation that there is even a hardware bug in the current version, so make what you will of that.
All in all, it won't have any dramatic improvements. Just some cooler memory, and more of it.
------------------ Only 30,000 to 40,000 genes in an Einstein, a Michael Jordan, or a Bach? Boy, can that God guy write tight code or what? - David Rudloff
IMO, Mr. Derek Smart is a hypocrite: Only someone who is either (a) lying (b) ashamed of their products (c) just plain ashamed, would hestitate to give out some simple and straight forward information. - Derek Smart, Ph.D.
Yeah, there've been rumours of a hardware bug in the current core revision as o.l.i. said. I very much doubt it. A lot of people seem to attribute the 15fps they get in the High Poly test in 3DMark2k1 and the 30fps they get in MOHAA:Omaha Beach to it. I don't think they realise that that's about as fast as those scenes will run on any hardware out today! There've been some serious increases in performance with the latest drivers, v.6043, that may put some of these claims to rest.
The Tiny EBGA memory on the 128MB cards is spec'd at 3.3ns, so it may be good for 700MHz. The 3.6ns memory on current cards is hitting 650MHz with a voltage mod.
Yeah, you're probably right. I don't think they would have coded it knowing it could only run 30fps max on current stuff. MOHAA normally runs 60fps+ on my system @1280x1024x32 with everything maxed and aniso. It's just certain places where the framerate plunges. The "high-poly bug" that supposedly afflicts 8500's rears its ugly head in that particular scene. The snow&forest levels are also affected. Can't say I've noticed too much. Time for some FRAPS, methinks.
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