![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Friday , October 19, 2001
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ATi's Radeon 8500 Reviewed
We decided to review our Radeon 8500 with the cutting edge AthlonXP 1.53GHz CPU as we know that AMD is the leading choice among our readers. The Radeon 8500 is the first non-NVIDIA card that we have been excited about for some time. Read on about Radeon and find out if our excitement turned to satisfaction or frustration.
Benchmarks (cont):
Our friends at MadOnion made 3DMark 2000 one of the definitive benchmarks for DX7. While it is a full system benchmark, the score it gives is fully weighted on a 3D gaming engine and the Frames Per Second data gathered there. When we saw these scores, we were surprised as you were. The Ti500 simply crushes the Radeon 8500 when teamed with the AthlonXP.
You guessed it, 3DMark 2001 is the next generation DX8 benchmark from MadOnion. It is more heavily weighted on the VidCard performance, as it fully utilizes some of the special DX8 instructions. Now after seeing the 3DMark 2000 scores, we were surprised to see the Radeon 8500 do so well. While it still falls up to almost 500 points behind the Ti500, it certainly produces a respectable score at 1024x768x32, though much less so at 1600x1200x32.
Max Payne is a game based on the same 3D engine used by 3DMark 2000 and 2001, so it seems as though the pattern might follow, and sadly it followed the 3DMark 2000 trend. Our benchmarking method can be found here and uses an in-game scene called "PCGH's Final Scene 1". While a 13 FPS difference at 1024x768x32 may seem small, at the frame rates we are dealing with, it is rather staggering. I would venture to say that 39 or 33 FPS would not be playable for our tastes. In fact, on my GF3 / 1.5GHz TBird box that I use for gaming, I dropped the resolution down to 1024x768x32 in order to feel comfortable with the responsiveness of the controls. Also worthy of mention here is the "No Result" you see for the Radeon 8500 at 1600x1200x32. Below is the error screen we consistently got as the game crashed back to the desktop. We did experience crashing here at all resolutions with the 8500, but 1600x1200x32 was simply unable to run at all.
