Is the only difference between the Radeon 8500 and 8500/LE a clock speed difference (275/275 vs 250/250) or is there another form of crippling at work?

That is the only difference on the majority of 8500LE cards.
However, on a few cards, such as my Hercules Prophet FDX 8500LE the second RAMDAC is also missing.

This means that I cant use 2 CRT monitors at the same time (dual display).
I could however use a CRT & TFT combination if required.

Regards

Andrew

If you buy a genuine ATI card, the only difference is the clock speed. Also the 8500 LE from ATI doesn't have any sort of DVI connector. I have an 8500LE from ATI and the DVI is not present. You can pretty much overclock the 8500LE to 8500 speeds, without too much hassle, consult Rage3D.com forums for more information.

Cards from other companies like Hercules, Gigabyte, and Sapphire, have speeds which are usually lower than ATI's and may have different features. The same holds true for 8500LE/8500 OEM boards.

Thats what I suspected. Really it depends on the price difference between the 8500 and 8500LE. If it's only a few bucks then I'll grab the 8500.

save up and get a 9700 or the 9500.

What's the dif beteween the 9500 PRO and the 9700 Pro?

The 9500 PRO has a 128-bit DDR memory interface while the 9700 PRO has a 256-bit DDR memory interface. Also I think the 9500 PRO is clocked lower, not entirely sure on the clock speeds but I am postive on the interface, since I looked it up at ATI's site.

Radeon 9700:
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/radeon9700pro/specs.html

Radeon 9500:
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/radeon9500pro/specs.html

Also, the Radeon 8500 is nowhere near dead, it is being reintroduced as the 9100 because it is still a fast processor, and is capable of beating the 9000, since the 2 are nearly identical. If you are really tight on money, the 8500 in my opinion is a great buy until you can afford newer and better things.

I'm waiting until the GeForce FX comes out. That will drive the prices right down. Might be able to get a 9500

I can get the 9500 PRO for about 250 CND.....so that is what I'm gonna do....I still cannot justfy 600 CND for the 9700 pro....

Thats a pretty good price and is bound to fall next month. I also cannot justify buying the latest and greatest graphics card, just too expensive.

hehe, i didn't pay for mine - work did