Crazy theory, but you can try.

I bought a 8500LE 230/230Mhz and it was very unstable, and every time I tried to raise the clocks it would artifact, even with a small bump to 240/240Mhz, despite having 3.6ns memories.

I decided to flash the VBIOS from a full 8500 (275/275Mhz) and since then it's rock stable at 275.

them green caps be looking sus... Could be a bad BGA too.

Pino wrote on 2025-07-29, 19:00:

Crazy theory, but you can try.

I bought a 8500LE 230/230Mhz and it was very unstable, and every time I tried to raise the clocks it would artifact, even with a small bump to 240/240Mhz, despite having 3.6ns memories.

I decided to flash the VBIOS from a full 8500 (275/275Mhz) and since then it's rock stable at 275.

I tried flashing all the bioses I found for the 8500/9100. The video card only started with half of them, but the artifacts didn't change. The main issue is with the stretching polygons, and I believe it's a power problem on the card.

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-29, 19:20:

them green caps be looking sus... Could be a bad BGA too.

The photo is of poor quality, but I've included it to show you what the graphics card looks like. I've inspected all the capacitors, and they appear to be in excellent condition.

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-29, 19:20:

Could be a bad BGA too.

Artifacts don't change if you put pressure on the memory or GPU, so it's unlikely.

MaRCer wrote on 2025-07-29, 19:35:

The photo is of poor quality, but I've included it to show you what the graphics card looks like. I've inspected all the capacitors, and they appear to be in excellent condition.

just because the caps look good does not mean they are good...

MaRCer wrote on 2025-07-29, 19:38:

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-29, 19:20:

Could be a bad BGA too.

Artifacts don't change if you put pressure on the memory or GPU, so it's unlikely.

your ram in not a BGA... don't press on it. and just because you press on a chip and nothing changes does not mean the BGA is good.

MaRCer wrote on 2025-07-29, 18:18:

R8500 is most likely LE, as the bios frequencies are 250/250. In 3D applications, polygons are stretched, and in Doom 1, there are vertical stripes of white dots. Windows works normally. The board itself is undamaged and does not have any leaking or leaking capacitors. Replacing the firmware, reducing/increasing the GPU and memory frequencies, and adjusting the GPU and memory pressure do not affect the artifacts. This is a common problem, but the RV200's crystal is covered in plastic and cannot be damaged, so I assume that the issue is related to the power supply on the board. Where should I start checking? I have found the datasheets for all the voltage generators, but I am unable to determine which pin provides the output voltage.

It has the small square RAMDAC by the GPU so it should be the Radeon 8500 rather than the LE version. Could you take a screenshot of the error that you're seeing in doom?
I don't have the Radeon 8500 myself yet but I've got an AIW 8500 DV I'm about to test and I'm shopping for a full 8500 😀
Weird that Doom shows artifacts but Windows is fine.

Try out a generic memory test tool, I'm not sure there is one for the R200 specifically: Radeon R200 and R100 memory test tool

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-29, 19:38:

MaRCer wrote on 2025-07-29, 19:35:

The photo is of poor quality, but I've included it to show you what the graphics card looks like. I've inspected all the capacitors, and they appear to be in excellent condition.

just because the caps look good does not mean they are good...

Kind of, if it's a reference board built to a good spec then the capacitors are usually good high quality ones and it's best to go with clues of faults rather than immediately suspecting caps. The silver-can, black marking ones look like good quality capacitors like panasonic polymer low-esr capacitors rather than dodgy brands. The silver markings on the green capacitors imply they're Sanyo capacitors and those are excellent from all the ones I've salvaged and tested so far.
But if they're dodgy brands like Choyo then that's worth being suspicious of even if the caps look okay from the top.

The damaged fan blade is a bigger concern 😒

Thermalwrong wrote on 2025-07-30, 00:32:

It has the small square RAMDAC by the GPU so it should be the Radeon 8500 rather than the LE version.

Not always the best indicator https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item … -radeon-8500-le

Run a generic memory test using Re: Radeon R200 and R100 memory test tool

Have you thoroughly checked if there are any cut traces? Or missing SMD components?

If you believe it is a power problem, what does give you the indication?
Have you checked running the core and/or memory on severely lower clocks?

I ran a video memory test, and it started finding errors. I lowered the memory frequency using Rivatuner to 200mhz, and most of the artifacts disappeared. In Doom, there are no more white dots, and in 3dmark2001, the polygons are no longer stretched. The memory test no longer finds errors. However, there are still black dots at the top of the screen in 3dmark. I lowered the frequency to 150mhz, but it did not help. Lowering the GPU and memory frequencies to the minimum 150mhz did not remove the black dots.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2025-07-30, 00:32:

Kind of, if it's a reference board built to a good spec then the capacitors are usually good high quality ones and it's best to go with clues of faults rather than immediately suspecting caps. The silver-can, black marking ones look like good quality capacitors like panasonic polymer low-esr capacitors rather than dodgy brands. The silver markings on the green capacitors imply they're Sanyo capacitors and those are excellent from all the ones I've salvaged and tested so far.
But if they're dodgy brands like Choyo then that's worth being suspicious of even if the caps look okay from the top.

The damaged fan blade is a bigger concern 😒

dell PC's. Abit motherboards, heck evne a handful of asus motherboards, evga 7600 all where suppose to be build to good spec too but how did that work out for them? and Sanyo caps good ? 🤣
Its the green ones that need replaced. the little black ones are ok.