Conclusive Thoughts

As stated in the introduction, initially we didn’t think much of yet another 8500 GT based video card, until we saw that Leadtek equipped theirs with DDR3 memory and set higher default clock speeds. In our performance tests we saw increases between 40 and 60% over the default DDR2 version, this boost is quite noticeable and allowed us to run games at higher resolution and detail settings without them becoming slide-shows.

With a video card market filled by a large number of competitors who want you to buy their product, it’s quite obvious that performance only won’t decide if this product is a winner. Without a doubt you have to take into account the financial aspect. The 8500 GT has a place between the cheaper 8400 GS and more expensive 8600 GT, the performance gap between these 3 cards is noticeable without a doubt. Price range goes from ~€50 for the 8400 GS, ~€70 for the 8500 GT DDR2 and ~€100 for the 8600 GT.

Where does the Leadtek card fit in? The estimated retail price for this PX8500 GT TDH Extreme 256MB DDR3 is $99/€99. That’s a ~40% price increase over the DDR2 version, while the performance difference between those two is 40+%, you can’t deny the fact that at €99 you could as well get a 8600 GT card:

On a Core 2 Duo 2.8Ghz system this is how the Leadtek 8500 GT DDR3 compares to a reference design 8600 GT DDR3:



The 8600 GT outperforms the 8500 GT card by 30~40%, for the Leadtek PX8500 GT TDH Extreme to be competitive price/performance wise it has to at least cost ~25% less than the 8600 GT card. A better price point for this card would be between €70~80.

As it stands the PX8500 GT TDH Extreme 256MB DDR3 doesn’t fail to impress performance wise, besting the DDR2 version easily, noise wise it’s only noticeable under heavy loads (when overclocked) the default heatsink keeping the GPU cool enough. The retail package is very complete with a free game included and excellent overclocking tools on the driver cd. Unfortunately the asking price is too close to that of the 8600 GT card which presents a better price/performance deal, if all you want is to play game.

The 8500 GT GPU is NVIDIA’s most affordable video card capable of offloading video decoding tasks with HD-DVD and Bluray, you can see the full support list here.

We thank Leadtek for the opportunity to test their unique 8500 GT video card and hope to see more innovative products from them in the near future!