Official Radeon9600 Review Thread

[RobHague]

Just wondered what happened to the Radeon 9600? Was it not due out around now? Ive not seen it even for pre-order on any of the usual sites i buy from.

Im not actually asking because i want to buy one mind you, im just wondering. I know the 9600 only has 4 pixel pipelines compared to the 9500 Pro's 8 so could this be the reason ATI are being a bit hush hush about benchmarks? Wouldnt supprise me if the 5600 Ultra did a little better against it now.

[StealthHawk]

no, it wasn't. it should be, but that's another story.

there have been no reviews, don't expect any r9600s to be in stores until reviews show up.

yes, this card was "launched" at the beginning of March.

[Dazz]

Someone said that ATi was going to announce shipping or something today?

[RobHague]

Some benchmarks would be good :) ive noticed ATI have not been so forthcoming with them. Starts you wondering.

[jbirney]

Originally posted by StealthHawk
no, it wasn't. it should be, but that's another story.

there have been no reviews, don't expect any r9600s to be in stores until reviews show up.

yes, this card was "launched" at the beginning of March.

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. 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).

ATI also plans to have a 9600 varient at the $100 price point (or slighlt less) to combat the $79 version of the FX.

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...

[Hanners]

Reviews are starting to crop up now:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDU4

http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/ati/rv350/

http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/S&V/r9600_pro.shtml

[Sazar]

looks to be a nice card... not a 9500pro killer.. but it appears to wallop its true competition... the 5600 ultra...

also the price is likely to plummet.. seems to be quite cheap to make..

profits per card should be pretty good...

[otheipion]

What piece of "Nvidi-gamy" is supposed to compete with the 9600 Pro?

[Hanners]

Originally posted by otheipion
What piece of "Nvidi-gamy" is supposed to compete with the 9600 Pro?

The 5600 and 5600 Ultra are supposed to compete with the 9600 and 9600 Pro.

[Sazar]

Originally posted by otheipion
What piece of "Nvidi-gamy" is supposed to compete with the 9600 Pro?

perhaps the 5800 non-ultra will :)

j/k

but seriously... the 5600 series are not even in close proximity it would appear to the 9600 series... @ least as far as the reviews go... and sean did a nice review once more...

[Slappi]

Originally posted by Sazar
perhaps the 5800 non-ultra will :)

j/k

but seriously... the 5600 series are not even in close proximity it would appear to the 9600 series... @ least as far as the reviews go... and sean did a nice review once more...


WTF kind of reviews are you reading? The 9600 doesn't destroy the 5600 ultra. Hardocp has their nose so far up ATI's azz it's not even funny.

[Steppy]

Originally posted by Slappi
WTF kind of reviews are you reading? The 9600 doesn't destroy the 5600 ultra. Hardocp has their nose so far up ATI's azz it's not even funny. Isn't the MSRP of the 5600U 249?

[Slappi]

Originally posted by Steppy
Isn't the MSRP of the 5600U 249?

If he said price that would be true. And to tell you the truth I would pick the 9500pro over all of them but that guy is just full of bs. I hate when people skew the truth like that poster did. The 5600U is a good card just not the best pick right now. However the 9600pro isn't the end all as the poster was making it out to be.

[Dazz]

What can i say except about *** **** time :)
http://www4.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030416/index.html

[creedamd]

Originally posted by Dazz
What can i say except about god damn time :)
http://www4.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030416/index.html

I would say the 9600pro and 5600ultra are even... at least until whql drivers come out for the 5600 :D

[Dazz]

I agree but the Radeon 9600Pro peforms alot better in Splinter Cell. However I am some what disapointed in them not using UT2003 BOTMATCH benchmark as this is far more sressfull. Last i looked the FX5600 Ultra performed really well in the Flyby but had terrible peformance in the botmatch and i wanted to see if it was the same cases as the 9600Pro.

Also the 9600Pro has an other advantage, it support OpenGL 2.0 :D

[Sazar]

Originally posted by Slappi
WTF kind of reviews are you reading? The 9600 doesn't destroy the 5600 ultra. Hardocp has their nose so far up ATI's azz it's not even funny.

I never said that the 5600 ultra is destroyed...

but overall the performance is not comparable... and if you think hardocp has their nose up ati's patootie... here;s a little tidbit... kyle and brent were not regarded well in the ati camp till the nv30 popped out due to their seemingly overly nvidia biased reviews...

sean did a good job earlier with a good attempt @ an apples to apples comparison instead of just doing what the companies specified... and again he has done a good job...

do note that the 5600 ultra will be priced lower than the 9600pro... hence there is a good market for the nv31/34 based products...

if you do read the reviews that do not solely compare the 5600 to the 4200 or some such.. you will note that the product is slower than the 9500pro in some areas... with AA and FSAA... again the 9600 even is a better buy...

and apparently dx9 implementation has not been curtailed... ie support is there a la the r300/350 core... with no software shortcuts... AFAIK...

[Sazar]

official retail prices =

9600P $199
9600NP $149

expect to see the 9600P @ around $150 and lower a few weeks after launch... and the 9600NP below $100...

[OICAspork]

Originally posted by Slappi
WTF kind of reviews are you reading? The 9600 doesn't destroy the 5600 ultra. Hardocp has their nose so far up ATI's azz it's not even funny.

LOL... you might want to whipe the NVcrap off your own nose before accusing someone else of bias :rolleyes: . What you'll see, when you clean the NVPoo off your face is that HardOCP's review turned texture filtering to application to force the 5600 line to actually perform true trilinear filtering... what other reviews show... is that the 5600 Ultra can almost keep up with the 9600 Pro with crapy filtering methods...

:afro: I seem to see a trend developing here in the NVidia vs ATI competition this product cycle.

[Sean P.]

Originally posted by Slappi
Hardocp has their nose so far up ATI's azz it's not even funny

It might interest you to know that before working at HardOCP, I wrote reviews for nV News. As such, I think it is hardly reasonable to say I am an ATI-fanboy. If you take a global look at all the reviews I have written, you will find that I am not a die-[H]ard fan of any one company. In the end, I am a fan of quality and speed...Whatever card can give me the best of those two worlds is what I end up using...

Oh and to Sazar, thank you for the positive feedback...

:thumbsup:

[Sazar]

Originally posted by Sean P.
It might interest you to know that before working at HardOCP, I wrote reviews for nV News. As such, I think it is hardly reasonable to say I am an ATI-fanboy. If you take a global look at all the reviews I have written, you will find that I am not a die-[H]ard fan of any one company. In the end, I am a fan of quality and speed...Whatever card can give me the best of those two worlds is what I end up using...

Oh and to Sazar, thank you for the positive feedback...

:thumbsup:

np..

it is just unfortunate that people look directly @ the numbers and graphs without reading the test setup and other details which distinguish the work done of one reviewer from that of others... and the explanations as to how the results were obtained...

its a learning experience for me... just unfortunate @ the dismissal of results that do not live up to expectations...

I do myself get miffed @ a few reviewers for their test methods where obvious bias becomes apparent... but in an apples to apples comparison.. there is less room for error...

[RobHague]

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030416/index.html

The product line was announced back in March; we're now beginning to see the first retail boards. We took a good hard look at the new Radeon 9600 PRO to see what it's made of, how it compares to its ancestor, the 9500 PRO, and how it stacks up against NVIDIA's GeForce FX 5600 Ultra.

The FX 5600 seems to do so poor in some test's its not funny, and VERY unexpected. As nvidia are just getting the drivers for the full-fledged NV30 upto scratch maybe the cut-down's are causing their own driver headaches..... :confused:

It seems to hold its own @ 1024x768 (even with AA) but going higher drops behind. Also the places where it should excel (the nature test in 3dmark2003) it falls WAY behind... very confusing results.

[Evildeus]

Well the 5600 has better performance than the 9600, and the 9600 pro than the 5600 ultra :cool:

I like this review:
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/461/page1.html

[gokickrocks]

the 9600 non pro (priced around $100 USD) is aimed at the 5200
the 9600 pro (priced around $150 USD) will be competing against the 5600

[mreman4k]

Looks like nVidia needs to give up on making the FX family competitve cause its a waste of money.....9600 Pro is nice:afro: