OCSystem Enhanced Radeon 8500 64mb Review

By default the retail Radeon 8500 (non-LE) is clocked at 275mhz core and 275mhz DDR (effectively 550mhz) memory and comes equipped with 64mb of 3.6ns Hynix memory. LE versions can come in a variety of flavors: 250/250, 230/230, 230/250, and possibly more. 1000/3.6 = 278mhz, so 275mhz DDR is well within spec. We should at least be able to take it up another 3mhz, if not it's a faulty card. Its theoretical fill rate is one Gigapixel (250mhz x 4 pipelines) and two Gigatexels (250mhz x 4 x 2 units/pipeline), which is a lot more impressive than the original Radeon and is higher spec'd than a Geforce3. The front of OCSystem's Enhanced Radeon 8500 is the reference design, straight from ATI. To my knowledge no one has tampered with re-arranging the layout. The only real difference is the cooling implementation in the form of tin-coated copper ramsinks (not Tweakmonster's) and a Crystal Orb attached with epoxy (or some other strong adhesive). Everything else on the board is identical to what you'd find on any Radeon.