9600xt Whats the benefit ?

[Nuggs]

Whats the benefit of the 9600xt when I can clock my 9600 pro at the same gpu clock speed and the ram speed is the same as the 9600pro ? Unless the xt can go well beyond 500mhz I wonder at the point of the product apart from the guarantee that you can hit 500 mhz clock speed.

 

[Corporate Thug]

same can be said for 9800 pro XT

 

[VIAN]

Well, I'm guessing that the 9600XT will come equipped with a nice beautiful copper heatsink allowing it to overclock more. Also they have that technology that allows it produce less heat which also means higher overclock.

 

[Nuggs]

What technology is that, I was under the impression it was extacly the same core as the pro ?

 

[VIAN]

The technology is called the low-k process. And I'm sorry, it doesn't create less heat, but it allows your VPU to reach higher speeds and maintain stability by preventing crosstalk(a bad thing) from happening. Because of this advantage, it is able to go higher than the previous 9600, how much higher who knows.

 

[Nuggs]

So it's a completley different core then ?

 

[FullRoast]

Well, in one review I read:

Internally ATI calls the new chip R360. But his does not mean that the chip contains any new features compared to the "old" Radeon 9800 alias R350. ATI did only some minor changes to the chip design. ATI did not go into details but explained that they changed the arrangement of several components on the die to achieve a better heat dissipation.

Sounds like it is a "new" core but not changed much.

 

[VIAN]

Its not the same as the 9800 PRO core because the 9600 Pro cuts pipeline and memory bandwidth in half compared to the 9800 Pro. But the 9600XT will be the same as the 9600Pro with a little more umph making it capable of overclocking it to higher speeds.

 

[cockeyed]

Rage3D had a good preview of things to come in the 9600XT. Linky

 

[duragezic]

Yeah well I knew that but I still don't understand how in Anand's article that he says the 9600XT should outperform the 9700P "not bad for a $199 card..." but it obviously doesn't in 90% of the benchmarks.

 

[VIAN]

maybe they mean that after you overclock the sucker to maximum ati guaranteed to work speed, then it will grace slightly pass the 9700 pro.

 

[Blastman]

Originally posted by: eagle
Yeah well I knew that but I still don't understand how in Anand's article that he says the 9600XT should outperform the 9700P "not bad for a $199 card..." but it obviously doesn't in 90% of the benchmarks.

It sounds like they made an error, maybe a typo. I would think they should have said the 9600 XT will outperform a 9500pro 100% of the time, not a 9700pro. Unless there is some radical new technology on the 9600 XT, a core speed bump to 500Mhz (from 400) won?t be enough to overtake the 9700. I?ve read both that the memory may receive a small speed bump and that it will stay the same as the current 9600pro at 300DDR.

Should be interesting to see how far that 9600XT overclocks on that new 0.13 manufacturing process and with a stock speed of 500mhz.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: VIAN
Well, I'm guessing that the 9600XT will come equipped with a nice beautiful copper heatsink allowing it to overclock more. Also they have that technology that allows it produce less heat which also means higher overclock.

i want half life 2 and a fast card
was going to spend 200 bucks between the 2 anyway...now i _know_ i can get a 9600 that will do 500mhz (or more, considering the 3.8 drivers can oc by themselves...) and a copy of half life 2

mmm

 

[FearoftheNight]

overdriv e

 

[Pete]

The 9600XT isn't made for you 9600 owners, it's made for people upgrading to a 9600 just now. And I think the included copy of HL2 and dynamic OCing makes it a nice deal.

 

[Corsairpro]

not only is it on a low-k process, but ATI also redid the paths on the PCB itself to allow higher clock/overclocks. When you overclock your video card, you're doing just that! The whole card needs to be up to snuff, not just the GPU and memory.

 

[tazdevl]

Benefit is that it has faster memory, dynamic overclocking (which means it can go who knows how high... 600mhz?), a 500mhz default core clock, made with the.13m low-k process (less power, less heat) and HyperZ has been enhanced so compression is now 8:1 instead of 6:1.

Also any time there is a respin of the core, PCB goes through a revision as well.

It isn't a new core, just slightly enhanced with a new manufacturing process.

 

[GiBro]

The benefits will be for the ones who are looking at cards who have yet to come up to the level of 9600 and above. People who do have these cards already, need not to worry a whole lot. Well, not until they see HL2 benchies.