Fall 2003 Video Card Roundup Part I - ATI's Radeon 9800 XT
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on October 1, 2003 3:02 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
ATI is also announcing the Radeon 9600 XT; a much more exciting derivative of the Radeon 9600 Pro based on a low-k dielectric 0.13-micron process. The benefits of a low-k dielectric are mainly related to shielding from crosstalk in high transistor density chips; the benefit of a low-k process is mainly the ability to scale up clock speeds, which is why you will see that ATI is able to clock the 9600 XT at 500MHz. According to ATI, the Radeon 9600 XT should be the first mainstream part to outperform the Radeon 9700 Pro in all situations – not bad for a $199 card.
The Radeon 9600 XT will hit the streets sometime in November and we’ll be sure to bring you coverage of that card as soon as we get our hands on one.
Finally we have the NV38, NVIDIA’s Fall refresh part; we won’t see NV40 and R4x0 until next Spring so both companies are bringing out higher clocked versions of their current cards in order to compete during the holidays.
Just like the Radeon 9800 XT, the NV38 is basically a higher clocked version of the NV35 (GeForce FX 5900 Ultra) with a new cooling system. Now running at 475/475 (950MHz DDR), the NV38 boasts a 5% increase in core clock and an 11% increase in memory frequency.
The card will officially be launched next month but we’re going to be able to bring you a preview of the NV38’s performance today.
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Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
I'd like to see higher resolutions being used. This would (partially) remove the CPU from the equation, if we're testing video cards. 1024x768 may not be enough of a test nowadays.Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
Does ANYONE read the first few pages of the review?I really like the new format. I have a limited amount of time to read this stuff so I'm glad it's coming in bite size pieces.
I can't wait for the companion reviews that cover image quality etc. Until then, I'm satisfied that I have the salient points.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
How about adding Battlefield 1942 to the test suite?Anonymous User - Monday, October 6, 2003 - link
I would like to see Nascar Racing 2003 Season (Sierra/Papyrus) and Nascar Thunder 2004 (EA) added to the list for future testing; esp. NR2003.Thanks
Anonymous User - Monday, October 6, 2003 - link
why are idiots allowed to post?Anonymous User - Monday, October 6, 2003 - link
What surprises me is that NVIDIA let Anandtech use and benchmark a card that hasn't been even announced yet. I haven't seen any reviews or previews for this card anywhere, and it's not even listed on NVIDIA's site! It's a bad time to own a NVIDIA card, so I guess I'll get rid of mine real soon.assemblage - Monday, October 6, 2003 - link
Star Wars Galaxies and Everquest. It would be nice if those games were benchmarked.Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
Add Rise of Nations, it needs alot of power at late game & after every wonder is built.Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
You know, it may be a bit overkill, but wouldn't it be a good idea to test video cards on a 8x846 opteron system, so that none of the tests is anywhere near cpu-limited?Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
Nah, Bigshit under whatever handle is an idiot. Most of the rest are just naive. I think it's fair to criticise this review in several areas - e.g. the constant use of 1024x768 - but give 'em a chance to get it right before you start the accusations.