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 - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I would like to see you guys useStarwars Galaxies: An Empire divided
I'm not sure if there's a benchmark for this game but i think you can come up with something...
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
#69 I agree that those areas should have been explored further, perhaps not in situations where frames were dropping very low but indeed you make a good pointAnonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Great work, however in the relentless march forward the benchmarks lack the cards to compare the previous generation.For instance I own a Nvidia Ti4600. I'd potentially want to buy something new but to make a decision I want to see how my card performs against the newer cards shown.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I have just came here from [H]ardOCP to read this article and I noticed something so glaringly obvious im surprised no one has mentioned it.How many of you play games at 1024X768, I know I dont, I play em at 1280X1024 or higher and where has Nvidias biggest drawback been lately, yes thats right you increase the screen size and Nvidia jumps of a cliff whereas ATI walks down a step.
I been a gamer who doesnt use 1024X768 means this review is of no use to me, the drivers used are questionable, the image quality is inferior, the setup is poor, and the results DO NOT compare to other sites (ive checked 4 sites so far not including NV38 part), also after looking over this site I have seen not one advertisement for ATI yet I have seen a few concerning Nvidia.
Anandtech from what I remember used to be impartial this something I dont think they are anymore.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
which bench's did that occur #65? im too lazy to go sorting thru em ;)if that is the case, then that has dodgy drivers written all over it
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I'm most interested in hearing about MMORPG performance. I know you included Final Fantasy XI in this suite, but I was hoping that you select an established, popular game. MMORPG DX9 titles like Starwars Galaxies or Asheron's Call 2. And MMORPG DX8 titles like Dark Age of Camelot or Anarchy Online. These games represent more closely were MMORPGs are headed in graphics engine development. Upcoming titles like, like Middle-Earth Online (Turbine), D&D Online (Turbine), Everquest 2 (Sony Entertainment), and Mythica (Microsoft).Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
hey i'm interested in the benchmark from simcity4.i find it akward that since i have a radeon 9800PRO in my rig running a athlon 2600+ with 1gb of ram, i usually get 15fps with the updated patches from EA for simcity4. I've been searching around the internet about this problem of why simcity 4 just plain sucks with radeon cards and everyone on the forums says that its EA's fault for the way how they programed it. Anyways, why is it that Anand's benchmark of his radeons are all the way up to 52fps when most of his system setup is close to my specs?....anand? what drivers and patches are you using?
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
How do some cards (mostly nVidia, most evident on the 5600 Ultra) speed up in some benchmarks when AA and AF were turned on? Doesn't that raise a flag immediately?Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I know that this is all about the newer technology, but it would have been nice if you would have thrown a couple of the older cards in for comparisions sake (and for those without the cash to purchase new cards every 6 months) like the Geforce 4 TI 4600 or 4200 and the Radeon 8500.Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Any news as to why HL 2 benchmark was not out on 30.09 as it was supposed to?