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Since the announcement of the new Radeon 8500 by graphics hardware manufacturer ATI, the net has been positively alight with the usual rumors, speculations, and questions regarding this powerhouse card. In response to these speculations, ATI has seen fit to release a short Q&A, which has been posted by SourceMagazine.com, that highlights some of the more pertinent questions.

Though some of the questions are Windows-specific, certain others are definitely of interest to Mac users wondering about the performance level of this card. One of the more interesting issues addressed concerns the Radeon 8500 drivers under Open GL in regards to the Quake III engine:

[Q3]: Kyle Bennett of HardOCP raised a question about RADEON 8500 drivers under OpenGL mode generating better framerates in Quake III benchmarks when optimized. What is your explanation?

[A3]: ATI optimizes its drivers on many different levels, including the application level, the game engine level, the API level, and the operating system level. That is, some optimizations work only on specific games, while others work only on specific game engines or only on specific operating systems. In the case of Quake III and Quake III Arena , we were able to achieve certain optimizations specifically for that game, as we do for other popular games. Our engineering team is committed to providing the best visual experience for the user in all applications, with the optimal combination of high frame rates, image quality, and stability.

For those interested in further details, the rest of the Q&A can be found at SourceMagazine.com. More information on the 8500 itself can also be found at IMG's preview of this graphics card.

ATI - Radeon 8500

IMG - Radeon 8500 Preview

SourceMagazine.com - ATI Radeon 8500 Q&A

ATI

Radeon 8500

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