ATI: Pro,XT,AIW 9600,9700,9800 - plz explain differences

[brother7]

1- In general, within the 9600 series (or any other series, for that matter), what are the differences between the Pro, XT and AIW designations?
2- In general, what's the difference between 9600, 9700 and 9800?
3- There's a discontinued model, 8500DV, that included an IEEE1394 port. I think that was the reason for the 'DV' designation. Do any current ATI models include a firewire port?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Corporate Thug]

XTs core and mem are clocked higer than pros, AIW = ALL in wonder, which means built in TV tuner

9600 has 4 pipelines, 9700/9800 have 8. 9700/9800 is a lot faster than the 9600. the difference between the 9700 pro and 9800 series is marginal

no curent models have firewire

on a side note, stay away from the SE cards

 

[Pete]

1, 2) Here you go.
3) No, but PCI 1394 cards must be reasonably cheap by now.

 

[Corporate Thug]

nice chart pete

 

[niggles]

Originally posted by: Pete
1, 2) Here you go.
3) No, but PCI 1394 cards must be reasonably cheap by now.

yes, it's a nice chart, but it doesn't really illustrate the actual differences beyond the stats it shows. There is no difference according to the chart between the 9600 Pro and XT. I've been looking for a comparison accross the board with benchmarks. I can't find one. When a bench mark test is done on Anandtech it seems to show the differences between Nvidia and ATI... something that I'm not all that concerned with. What I want to know is the differences between ATI cards. Just because the 9600pro is no longer the newest thing, I still want to know the diff between my card and what is coming out so I can figure out if it's worth upgrading. It's not just anandtech though, it's a lot of sites...

 

[tenoc]

For performance differences, try rummaging around in here.