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 think I remember that Tron 2.0 asked me to install DX9 so it probably uses some DX9 functions and it's an existing game so why not try to build a benchmark on it? Anyway since we're dealing with unreleased Det50 drivers here... (I rather prefer the THG way of dealing with that)BTW, I think there's a massive misunderstanding on whether a game is DX8/8.1/9; it can be all at the same time. You can use DX8 pixel shaders and DX9 pixel shaders at the same time.
It's just that as soon as you start using DX9 functions you lose compatibility with DX8/8.1 compatible cards. It's up to the developer to replace these convenient DX9 specifics by DX8/8.1 compatible pixel shaders for instance. So DX9 is really an extension to DX8.1 and DX8.1 is an extension to DX8 and so on
Oh and Doom III is OpenGL for God's sake!!!!!!!!!
appu - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
It would be a good idea to include at least FIFA2003 (and if possible, NFS HP2 or PU) mainly for
the same reason why C&C was benched. These are
really popular games and people would like to know
how they "feel" running with these new cards and
drivers. Also, FIFA 2004 is reportedly coming up
with even more impressive graphic quality and AI
(the latter could be a reason to CPU bench it,
perhaps?).
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
#59 - halflife2 will be a very important benchmark, but its not out yet.. although a benchmarking tool was promised around this timeAnonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Well done guys, defintely going down the right track, testing cards with REAL games that people actually play.Still needs a little refining - HL2 can't be ignored as a valid benchmark!
Keep up the good work.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
im in the same boat as you here #57, very excited about the 9600XT although i think that its more a case of not available than lack of want for a review on AT's part.Can't wait to see how they go =)
zxyth - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
I'm was hoping to see benchmarks for the 9600XT. $500 for a new card is rather high for someone on a budget. I've been interested in the 9600 Pro cards for a while and I'm disappointed none of the 9600's were shown. Not everyone can afford the high end cards and I for one would like to see more coverage of the cards that many more people are like to have or buy. It's great to see the flagship cards and what they can do, but don't forget some of us just can't go that route. And we'd like to see benchmarks for the cards that we have or want to purchase.Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
#52 I guess we are both whiners then. I keep whining about Anandtechs review and you about my comments. Peace, I'm getting tired.Evan Lieb - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
A 2.8GHz Prescott CPU was used. Anand probably didn't say anything just to tease you. ;)Take care,
Evan
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Prescott will come out at 3.2 and 3.4 GHz later this year.Lower versions 3.0/2.8...will follow afterwards.
So its for sure no Prescott here.
And if, I wonder why there is no test/word at all about it.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - link
Correction, I meant #41.