Fall 2003 Video Card Roundup - Part 3: ATI's Radeon 9600 XT
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on October 15, 2003 10:26 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Aquamark3 Performance
Despite what some people would like everyone to think, Aquamark3 is really a test of how people developing software now envision DirectX 9 pixel and vertex shaders will be used in the future. The situation is very reminiscent of the first Sony PlayStation: the first games that used the technology were limited by the hardware until developers really learned to work with the hardware rather than on the hardware. As time progressed, we went from what were essentially ports of 16bit console games to amazingly complex and beautiful games like Gran Turismo 2. The same thing will happen with shader technology, and no amount of guessing and throwing functions at a GPU will tell you how its performance will really be in the future. Essentially, my advice is that any piece of software that claims it is a valid predictor of future performance should be taken lightly. We based our decision to include Aquamark3 on its popularity in the community. Aquamark3 is a cool piece of software, with some pretty neat tests, and a high score in any benchmark can still earn bragging rights in the forums. The only Aquamark3 test we ran was the publicly available 1024x768 4X AF no-AA in order to maximize the usefulness of these numbers to the community. Our drivers were set to allow application control of AF and AA.
The 9600 XT makes some good gains over the 9600 Pro in Aquamark. For a 25% increase in clock speed, we get more than a 17% increase in frame rate. We still aren't close to the 9700 Pro, but those kinds of numbers are not bad by any stretch.
We can attribute the solid increase in frame rate under Aquamark to its extensive use of shaders which make performance more defendant on core clock speed than any thing else.
All the other cards in this benchmark fall where we would expect them.
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Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
Before anyone else beats me to it,NVIDIA HAS FAILED
sorry, just had to say it.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
#8 = TrollAnonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
I CAN'T UNDERSTAND HOW THEY GOT SUCH LOW SCORES ON THE GEFROCE FX 5600 ULTRAI BUILT COMPUTERS FOR A LIVING AND OFTEN BENCHMARK THESE SYSTEMS FOR MYSELF
TAKE GUNMETAL FOR EXAMPLE
THE 5600 ULTRA SCORED 14.5FPS
ON A ATHLON XP 2600 KT400 DDR333 GEFORCE FX 5600 NON-ULTRA I GET 25FPS
NOT TO MENTION I GET 47FPS ON A 5900
HOW IS IT THAT WITH SUPERIOR HARDWARE THEY SCORED %40 LOWER?
WHAT BULLSHIT IS THIS...
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
#4If we are talking about <$2.00 burritos, how about including some tacos? Does it make sense? Tacos are cheeper because of the hard, quite unedible shell. However, because a burrito can be warmed, the shell is of soft phsophate.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
How do you get an FPS rating from WarCraft 3?Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
Enough of the speculation of when NVIDA products will come out. May I point you to a quote from the Radeon 9700 Pro review:"NV30 will be out around December"
The product didn't actually make its way out until March, and even in limited volumes then.
Telling people to wait on the 5700 Ultra doesn’t make much sense.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
If we are talking about <$200 cards, how about include the 9800se. It can be had for $170 and it seems like it would be a decent performer, especially if overclocked. Can we also include the 9800se (non-pro) in future reviews?thanks
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
As an owner of a Geforce 4 ti4200, I apreciate having it included in the lineup, as it shows me that unless I have the cash to dish out for a 9700+, it's not realy worth it :) Great review!Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
A 100Mhz increase in core clock frequency! The benifit of buying this card becomes apparent in future titles, not current ones. My guess is the gap between 9600XT and 9700 pro will close significantly in Half-Life2 or Doom3 =).I also truely hope the GeforceFX 5700 will beable to dish out more damage then the 5600. No fun buying from just one company.
As for me, I doubt ill find a reason to upgrade my 9500pro for quite some time. Anyone who bought a card with the R3XX on it should not upgrade until DX10 comes out.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
bad link:page:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1904...
says:
Halo Performance but goes to Homeworld 2.