Official Radeon9600 Review Thread

[gokickrocks]

also, the new rage3d tweaker allows for the 9600 overclocking...
so far the highest oc on the 9600 pro is 560 on the core by b3d

this was done on stock cooling

[Dazz]

Heres another very interesting preview of the Radeon 9600Pro http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDU4 with both cards IQ settings to application (NVIDIA) & Quality (ATi) the card is quite speedy over the 5600Ultra.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Dave is getting 537 MHz on the core with the stock HSF...

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5397

[Dazz]

Impressive 1600 vs 2148m a nice increase should be quite impressive in UT2003 and other texture intensive games, make you wonder why they settaled with 400MHz while they could of done 475MHz.

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by jbirney
Sigh :(

Its been pretty common knowledge that ATI was holding back finalizing clock speeds until they saw what the FX5600/fx5200 cards did. ATI was trying to target between 325 and 400+ mhz on the core for the 9600pro. Thats a pretty broad range.

oh come on now, stop being an apologist. the gfFX5200 and gfFX5600 were both announced on March 6, just like the r9600 was. only difference is that we got reviews for the 5200/5600 on March 11.

Review cards have been out for at least 2 weeks now (B3D has had more than one review sample and I have heard that they are not the only site). Heard NDA was still in effect and should be up very soon (first of next week).

ironically the day you post this is the day the NDA apparently ended ;)

However whats the point? Its also pretty common knowledge that the R9500pro is faster. And will be at the same price point. I have seen the 9500pro's in stock at both Best Buy and Circuit City the last 3 times I have whent in there. No real reason to wait for the 9600pro. The 9600 is only got to save ATI money and not really add anything to the customer...

I prefer to take stock in cold, hard, comprehensive reviews, not in "common knowledge" based on rumors. according to the rumors I heard the r9600Pro was quite a bit slower with FSAA than the the r9500Pro was.

note: I haven't read the r9600 reviews yet.

[Dazz]

Then you might want to :)

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by Dazz
Then you might want to :)

yeah, took a look after my run in the forums :)

[Dazz]

They seem to be decent cards, DX 9+, OpenGL 2.0, no power cable needed, runs cool, cheap, Great for OEM's :)

The reson why HardOCP's results are so diffrent is due to them using max gfx settings aka FX5600U uses Application & 9600Pro uses Quility settings. It's a know fact that ATi has better peformance under these settings. nVidias Application is the same as ATi's Balanced mode. Although the FX5600U has more bandwith it's starving fore more fillrate that and the FX chips seem to lag abit clock for clock.

[Hanners]

Originally posted by Dazz
The reson why HardOCP's results are so diffrent is due to them using max gfx settings aka FX5600U uses Application & 9600Pro uses Quility settings. It's a know fact that ATi has better peformance under these settings. nVidias Application is the same as ATi's Balanced mode. Although the FX5600U has more bandwith it's starving fore more fillrate that and the FX chips seem to lag abit clock for clock.

:confused:

ATi don't have a 'Balanced' mode, only 'Performance' and 'Quality'.

nVidia's Application mode is the closest image quality-wise to ATi's Quality mode - [H]ardOCP were one of the only sites to get the settings right in their review for a proper 'apples to apples' comparison.

[jbirney]

oh come on now, stop being an apologist. the gfFX5200 and gfFX5600 were both announced on March 6, just like the r9600 was. only difference is that we got reviews for the 5200/5600 on March 11.

Ironically they had review samples but wanted to re-spin them one more time to get the speed up. So they told sites to hold of and wait for another batch.


ironically the day you post this is the day the NDA apparently ended

Yea dam holidays get be confused...did not look at the date until I posted it..doh :)

[Sean P.]

Dave is getting 537 MHz on the core with the stock HSF...

Believe it or not, the reference card I reviewed hit 567MHz!
( That is 167MHz over the stock 400MHz frequency! )

HardOCP's 9600 Pro Overclocking Article ( complete with benchmark results ) (http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDY0)

Enjoy...

:eek:

[ChrisW]

Originally posted by Sean P.
Believe it or not, the reference card I reviewed hit 567MHz!
( That is 167MHz over the stock 400MHz frequency! )

HardOCP's 9600 Pro Overclocking Article ( complete with benchmark results ) (http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDY0)

Enjoy...

:eek:
I bet you could have squeezed out a couple more MHz if you lowered the increment value (advanced button). 2.25 or 2.45 would be good candidates for that card.

[Spotch]

With that kind of core speed it seems the .13u is really going well for ATI. Makes me think that we will see at least 500mhz R300 cards this year. :dance:

[ChrisRay]

The thing that most people are not seeing in these reviews is the 6x Performance.


Which is VERY behind the 9500 Pro cards


The only review site which showed 6x comparison was beyon3d. And it showed the card being like 15% slower in 6x.


I'm glad I got my 9500 Pro. This card just sucks heh

[Hanners]

Agreed, 6xAA scores are much worse, but are that many people really going to use 6xAA on modern games? Especially on a mid-range card.

[Sazar]

Originally posted by Hanners
:confused:

ATi don't have a 'Balanced' mode, only 'Performance' and 'Quality'.

nVidia's Application mode is the closest image quality-wise to ATi's Quality mode - [H]ardOCP were one of the only sites to get the settings right in their review for a proper 'apples to apples' comparison.

eh... um.. ati DOES have a balanced mode :)

look in your control panel for either openGL or direct3d.. you will see BALANCED smack bang in the middle of performance and quality :)

[Sazar]

Originally posted by ChrisRay
The thing that most people are not seeing in these reviews is the 6x Performance.


Which is VERY behind the 9500 Pro cards


The only review site which showed 6x comparison was beyon3d. And it showed the card being like 15% slower in 6x.


I'm glad I got my 9500 Pro. This card just sucks heh

given the fact that the 9600pro has 4 pipelines v/s the 8 of the 9500pro... I think everybody expected the 9600pro to be slower than the 9500pro...

however the performance is pretty good concerning it only has 4 pipelines... and the heat dissipation is good as well if the card can be oc'd so high and such a dinky cooler used... :)

obviously few problems seem to have occured in the move to 0.13 micron for ati...

considering the 9500pro is being phased out.. the 9600pro becomes a good buy :)

hence your purchase was a sound decision...

I am sure ati stockholders will be quite happy however :)

[Sean P.]

The only review site which showed 6x comparison was beyon3d.

Not true...my review ( not the overclocking article ) used the 6X comparison...

Review (http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDU4)

:D

[ChrisRay]

Originally posted by Hanners
Agreed, 6xAA scores are much worse, but are that many people really going to use 6xAA on modern games? Especially on a mid-range card.


The way I see it, The more power you have available to you. The more lasting power your machine has,


So Running 6x AA is quite important to me. I mean I play Everquest Daily in 6x AA and 16x Performance AF and I have a mid range card right? :P




given the fact that the 9600pro has 4 pipelines v/s the 8 of the 9500pro... I think everybody expected the 9600pro to be slower than the 9500pro...

however the performance is pretty good concerning it only has 4 pipelines... and the heat dissipation is good as well if the card can be oc'd so high and such a dinky cooler used...

obviously few problems seem to have occured in the move to 0.13 micron for ati...

considering the 9500pro is being phased out.. the 9600pro becomes a good buy

hence your purchase was a sound decision...

I am sure ati stockholders will be quite happy however

However the decision is simple if you can find a radeon 9500 Pro.

Now the 9600 Pro is not without it's merits. Having one would probably not have made me have to upgrade my power supply.


But frankly. 6x AA performance is important to me. And Sadly ATIS previous mainstream card could do it..


Sorry Sean I never caught the hardocp review, and for the reason being, as long as Kyle remains on your team of reviewers I won't be visiting your site,

I doubt thats any consolation, I'm sorry tho. you're a good charactor ;)

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by Sazar
given the fact that the 9600pro has 4 pipelines v/s the 8 of the 9500pro... I think everybody expected the 9600pro to be slower than the 9500pro...

an assumption I didn't really understand considering it has more raw bandwidth than the r9500Pro and it also sports a more optimized memory controller, and supposedly the card was tweaked for a 128bit bus.

that's all past history now though. the truth has been revealed. I for one would still recommend the r9500Pro as the best midrange card.

[Hanners]

Originally posted by Sazar
eh... um.. ati DOES have a balanced mode :)

look in your control panel for either openGL or direct3d.. you will see BALANCED smack bang in the middle of performance and quality :)

Nope... My 9800 Pro only has the choice of Quality or Performance aniso modes.

[saturnotaku]

There is a "balanced" mode under the "Main Settings" section of the driver control panel. However, you cannot adjust ansio or FSAA independently of this setting, which IMO renders this balanced thing useless.

[Hanners]

Originally posted by saturnotaku
There is a "balanced" mode under the "Main Settings" section of the driver control panel. However, you cannot adjust ansio or FSAA independently of this setting, which IMO renders this balanced thing useless.

That one is called 'Optimal Performance', not 'Balanced'. ;)

[jbirney]

Originally posted by StealthHawk
an assumption I didn't really understand considering it has more raw bandwidth than the r9500Pro and it also sports a more optimized memory controller, and supposedly the card was tweaked for a 128bit bus.

More raw bandwidth does not do much if you dont have the fill rate to begin with. This is where the R9600Pro is lacking. Althought the thing so far can OC like a mother :)

[Myrmecophagavir]

Originally posted by Sazar
eh... um.. ati DOES have a balanced mode :)

look in your control panel for either openGL or direct3d.. you will see BALANCED smack bang in the middle of performance and quality :) Yeah but that slider doesn't directly control anything - it's a super-slider whose positions are presets for the other settings on the page. The important ones are the AA/AF forcing options and the texture quality/mipmap quality sliders.

Originally posted by Hanners
That one is called 'Optimal Performance', not 'Balanced'. ;)Seems to be a bug in the control panel, it's actually Balanced but if Custom Settings is ticked when the panel is opened you get the wrong text label shown in the box.