AnandTech: Fall 2003 Video Card Roundup Part I - ATI's Radeon 9800 XT

[First]

Surprised no one has posted a thread yet, so I'll just do it.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1890

By the way, I just received an ASUS 9800XT at my doorstep today. So, just let me know if there's something you'd like too see in that review (besides what's already in Anand's review and besides the IQ testing we'll be doing later).

And yes, we have a 2.8GHz Prescott processor, I received it last week at Computex...

 

[Pirox]

How is it performing? is it good...any idea's?

 

[bgeh]

benchies of the 2.8 Prescott please

 

[Vonkhan]

how'd Anand get hold of the nVIDIA card :Q

 

[orion7144]

I like this last statement from the conclusion. It looks like we will have a choice after all is said and done. I like my 9800Pro but would sure like to have the stability of the Nvidia drivers again.

Although we did provide some insight into the ?next generation? of games with scores from Halo, the real question on everyone?s mind is still Half Life 2 as well as Doom3. The performance crown under Doom3 is still in NVIDIA?s camp apparently, and although the latest drivers have closed the gap significantly, ATI is still ahead in Half Life 2. The numbers we?ve seen indicate that in most tests ATI only holds single digit percentage leads (< 5%), although in some cases ATI manages to pull ahead by double digits.

 

[xSauronx]

cant wait for the rest of the series
i need a card for christmas...

 

[Chaotic42]

How is its Linux performance?

 

[Mingon]

are the 9800xt numbers non overclocked? as the cards can automatically overclock are they doing this? Not that it really matters.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Perhaps when new games are introduced, you could at the very least make a passing mention of which settings were used for all the game? It would be nice to know for instance, which PS version was used for Halo. As the review was presented, it was fairly useless information between the numerous disclaimers about a future IQ article and the lack of information on which settings many of the games were running. Without at least the important factors discussed, there really isn't even a general guideline established about these cards except they are not much faster then their predecessors(which we all could have figured out looking at the raw specs).

 

[Anubis]

whens it offically realeased? the 9800xt????

 

[Akaz1976]

Some one in the 'official' 9800XT thread posted that anand was delaying publishing his review cuz he was saving best for last.

Boy was he right!

Akaz

PS> i was getting bitchy about AT not having the review up, my apologies

 

[ElFenix]

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.

kick ass!

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Mingon
are the 9800xt numbers non overclocked? as the cards can automatically overclock are they doing this? Not that it really matters.

det 3.8 enables the automatic overclock, they used 3.7 for the review

 

[ElFenix]

We?re quite weary of recommending

wary! not weary! weary is tired! i know i've said it before and i'll say it again, you guys need an editor!

 

[killedradiostar]

Originally posted by: bgeh
benchies of the 2.8 Prescott please

are you referring to the fact that the word "Prescott" is written in white text at the bottom of page 4's description of the test system?

 

[Alkaline5]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

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.

kick ass!

Judging by the 9600 Pro figures, I find it hard to believe that the 9600XT will scale that well. Here's hoping, though!

 

[KhoiFather]

That card is definitely not worth at this time. A 9800 Non-Pro will do you almost as good as the 9800XT.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Alkaline5
Judging by the 9600 Pro figures, I find it hard to believe that the 9600XT will scale that well. Here's hoping, though!

The 9600XT will come with an extra 100MHz GPU and only god knows how much extra memory speed. To me it's not all that hard to believe, the 9600 Pro was fairly close to the 9700 Pro in some of the tests and it even beat it in a select few. Time will tell and I can't wait to see this card hit the streets.

 

[UlricT]

ummmm... I don't see the benchies for the 9600XT.

"As we briefly mentioned, there are three new products to talk about today ? the Radeon 9800 XT, the Radeon 9600 XT and then NVIDIA?s NV38."

I supppose "talk about" does not mean benches

/EDIT: The Simcity4 benchmark seems kind of wierd... AA/AF scores are higher for the ATI cards than their non AA/AF scores?>??

 

[GTaudiophile]

Evan: please wait until October 8, get the CAT 3.8 drivers, and tell us how high OverDrive takes the core clock on your ASUS board.

 

[Medicated858]

Thank god for a good review. The one at Hardocp was such bs butt kissing article. I dont know how anyone can recommend or even approve of such a minor bump in performance. I also don't see how the 9600 pro will ever outperform a 9700 pro on average. I think what ATI means is that it will outperform the 9700 pro in certain tests where it's already close anyway.

 

[MrEgo]

Why isn't ATI making the 9500 and 9700 anymore? Those cards are so good.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: MrEgo
Why isn't ATI making the 9500 and 9700 anymore? Those cards are so good.

9700 is still being made in the form of the 9800 PRO and 9800XT. ATi was barely making any money on the 9500 series, thus it was discontinued.

 

[Alkaline5]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
The 9600XT will come with an extra 100MHz GPU and only god knows how much extra memory speed. To me it's not all that hard to believe, the 9600 Pro was fairly close to the 9700 Pro in some of the tests and it even beat it in a select few. Time will tell and I can't wait to see this card hit the streets.

Actually, the memory clock has been confirmed to be the same 600MHz for both the 9600 Pro and XT. Unless something changes between now and the actual launch, you can see why I'm skeptical.

edit: linkified

 

[Czar]

sooooo happy that I bought a radeon 9700 pro over a year ago