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bstone · May 18, 2003, 04:30 AM

Is there any noticable difference between the Radeon 8500 64 and the 128 mb versions of the cards? I am buying/flashing a PC card. The 64mb one costs like 80 with taxes and/or shipping and the 128mb is just a few dollars more.

Anyone?

digi-j · May 18, 2003, 06:44 AM

Originally posted by bstone:
Is there any noticable difference between the Radeon 8500 64 and the 128 mb versions of the cards? I am buying/flashing a PC card. The 64mb one costs like 80 with taxes and/or shipping and the 128mb is just a few dollars more.

Anyone?

the noticable difference is the 128Mb one won't work.

mac freak · May 18, 2003, 10:59 AM

Assuming both will work (which unfortunately does not seem to be the case), you'll only notice improvements with the 128 in games that need to load more than 64MB of textures at once. Thus, you'll only notice improvements in new(ish) games, but by a noticable amount on high texture detail (where that 64+ will be loaded; the point of lower texture detail is to use less texture memory by shrinking the file size of the textures).

$80 is not a bad deal for a 64MB 8500 Pro.

bstone · May 18, 2003, 01:05 PM

Originally posted by digi-j:
the noticable difference is the 128Mb one won't work.

Are you quite certain? I have seen many, many cases of people sucessfully flashing the 128mb verson.

D'Espice · May 19, 2003, 02:55 AM

I haven't seen a single 128MB Radeon that somebody was able to flash. The point is that even if it'll work: The MAC Edition only has 64 MB which means the firmware/video bios won't be able to access the other 64MB of video ram even if flashing would work.

rhogue islander · May 19, 2003, 01:03 PM

Trust me, it won't work. I know. I tried, it died. Returned to BestBuy.

Orion27 · May 19, 2003, 01:55 PM

Originally posted by D'Espice:
I haven't seen a single 128MB Radeon that somebody was able to flash. The point is that even if it'll work: The MAC Edition only has 64 MB which means the firmware/video bios won't be able to access the other 64MB of video ram even if flashing would work.

What is the current maximum ram allowed on video cards for the current crop of MDD Macs?
In particular the FW 800 DP 1.25. I was looking to uprade to 128 ati 9800 when available. Incidently, I'm not a big gamer but I thought my overall experience of OSX would be enhanced given I'm driving a 20" Cinema.
True?

freakboy2 · May 19, 2003, 03:05 PM

Originally posted by Orion27:
What is the current maximum ram allowed on video cards for the current crop of MDD Macs?
In particular the FW 800 DP 1.25. I was looking to uprade to 128 ati 9800 when available. Incidently, I'm not a big gamer but I thought my overall experience of OSX would be enhanced given I'm driving a 20" Cinema.
True?

What do you have now? Upgrading to an 8500 from a gf4 mx won't make much difference.

If you're not a gamer, I don't think you'll see a huge improvement with a super phat video card.

fb

digi-j · May 19, 2003, 03:15 PM

Originally posted by freakboy2:
What do you have now? Upgrading to an 8500 from a gf4 mx won't make much difference.

If you're not a gamer, I don't think you'll see a huge improvement with a super phat video card.

fb

yeah, if you don't play the latest games, you will see no difference, and only a small difference if you do.

bstone · May 19, 2003, 03:21 PM

Originally posted by rhogue islander:
Trust me, it won't work. I know. I tried, it died. Returned to BestBuy.

But there ARE people who have flashed it sucessfully. There is yet hope!

Orion27 · May 19, 2003, 04:27 PM

I have a 64MB ATI 9000. I assume there would be a significant difference between this card and the 128MB 9800. No? Still looking for the answer to my question. Am I limited to 64MB cards

Scotttheking · May 19, 2003, 08:21 PM

pirating...