Has anyone else purchased the Info-Tek Radeon 9600pro?

[eLiu]

Hey all,
First off...I know I have another thread about my screwy 9600pro, but I thought this deserved a new topic b/c if other people are having the same problem (400/400), this could be an indication not to buy the $112 Info-Tek Radeon 9600pro on Newegg.

Ok, so I purchased this card on newegg. It's an Info-Tek Radeon 9600pro, listed as 400mhz gpu, 600mhz memory (DDR).

That's all good and happy right? Wrong.

I checked in AIDA 32--400gpu 400mem. If you right click the desktop, properties->settings->advanced->Adapter, it says internal [RAM]DAC is 400mhz. Under Radlinker, it also says 400gpu, 400mem. These numbers were reported under several different drivers (3.2, 3.7, 3.10, 4.4). The drivers that came with the card caused windows to crash so I never checked under those--just removed & re-installed.

Has anyone else purchased this card? Do y'all have any problems with it? (Mine is stable in windows, but won't play games.)

Y'all think I should keep trying to fix or just RMA?

Thanks,
-Eric

 

[Naruto]

Sounds like you should return that. And I believe atacom.com has a real 9600 pro for $99 after a coupon if you find the coupon code. Link Here I have no idea what the mem speed is though.

There is a forum for the atacom card here. There are several that ordered but have not received it yet. You can wait for their responses when they receive it and if they are good, you might wanna consider this one. The picture also has bga ram, but the picture looks to be the ati retail card that you can copy and paste from just about anywhere.

 

[Blastman]

That picture of the 9600pro at newegg has TSOP memory which means 400/200 DDR or an ?EZ? pro. Someone should email them because that is false advertising by newegg. THe memory is not 600MHz (2x300 DDR).

 

[otispunkmeyer]

yeah the 9600 EZ pro has slower mem by 100mhz (200mhz effective for DDR) either that or u got a 256mb card which use slower ram too.

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: Naruto
Sounds like you should return that. And I believe atacom.com has a real 9600 pro for $99 after a coupon if you find the coupon code. Link Here I have no idea what the mem speed is though.

Well, atacom has a resellerrating of 5.00...isn't that kind of bad? lol

Originally posted by: Blastman
That picture of the 9600pro at newegg has TSOP memory which means 400/200 DDR or an ?EZ? pro. Someone should email them because that is false advertising by newegg. THe memory is not 600MHz (2x300 DDR).

What does "TSOP" memory mean? Also, since it's advertised as a 400/600 Radeon 9600pro, do I have grounds to ask for an RMA because I did not receive the product posted on their website?

-Eric

Edit: How do you tell the difference between an "EZ" pro and a regular pro? Like, physically...besides how the radeon 9600 is 325gpu and this 'ez' thing is 400gpu.

 

[Naruto]

Radeon 9600 pro should have BGA ram, which means small square size ram. The EZ Pro has TSOP ram which is rectangular shaped ram. EZ Pro uses 9600 pro chips (all 9600 are the same chips anyways,even the 9600se I think), but to retain the title pro, you need 400mhz core, so whats left to cripple is the memory which the ez pro does. Yeah atacom has low reseller, but I can go for local pickup since I live close. Too bad I'm not shopping for a vid card now.

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: Naruto
Radeon 9600 pro should have BGA ram, which means small square size ram. The EZ Pro has TSOP ram which is rectangular shaped ram. EZ Pro uses 9600 pro chips (all 9600 are the same chips anyways,even the 9600se I think), but to retain the title pro, you need 400mhz core, so whats left to cripple is the memory which the ez pro does. Yeah atacom has low reseller, but I can go for local pickup since I live close. Too bad I'm not shopping for a vid card now.

Wow...that's annoying. I feel kinda cheated now, b/c the newegg site said 600mhz ram. Is there anything I can do about this? Is it even worth the trouble? Like is the lack of memory bandwidth going to hurt me a lot (I plan on keeping the card for a year or so, supposing I can get it to work properly)?

I suppose this is an honest mistake on newegg's part? lol

-Eric

 

[Pete]

NewEgg listed incorrect specs, so they should eat the return shipping costs.

 

[JBT]

Send that back and yes you will see a difference between a 9600 EZ pro and 9600 Pro.

You should not have to pay a damn thing for return shipping RMA ect...

 

[eLiu]

Pete and JBT,
How do I get newegg to pay my return shipping costs? On the RMA part of their website, here, they state:

Return Shipping Cost (The cost you pay to send an item back to Newegg.com) is the same as your cost to drive to any store for returning an item, which is not reimbursable. Thus, Newegg.com does not reimburse any customer return shipping cost.

I don't mind paying return shipping, but if there is a way around that...then I'd always be grateful to save a few bucks. Though, the card does work (just not on this computer--I think the AGP slot may be screwed up, but I'm not sure...as on a ECS K7S5a, the card runs pretty cool, even during gaming...on this comp, epox 8k7a, the card runs hot...even in windows, and games just crash.)

-Eric

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
yeah the 9600 EZ pro has slower mem by 100mhz (200mhz effective for DDR) either that or u got a 256mb card which use slower ram too.

Well that answers a question I had. I was wondering why the Sapphire 256MB 9600 Pros for $138 were the same price as some of the other 128MB cards, even though both listed 600MHz memory speeds. The memory pictured is obviously TSOP, so it must be running at 400MHz even though the specs list the higher clock speed.

So are ALL the 256MB 9600 Pros with TSOP running at 400MHz, despite specs that list 600MHz or even 660MHz clocks like this card?

 

[Pete]

How do I get newegg to pay my return shipping costs?
Um, just call them. Their number isn't hard to find on their site. I had to call them because of a mix-up with a previous order, and they answered pretty quickly. Or you could just e-mail them, but I prefer actually talking to someone.

 

[Naruto]

Originally posted by: batmanuel

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
yeah the 9600 EZ pro has slower mem by 100mhz (200mhz effective for DDR) either that or u got a 256mb card which use slower ram too.

Well that answers a question I had. I was wondering why the Sapphire 256MB 9600 Pros for $138 were the same price as some of the other 128MB cards, even though both listed 600MHz memory speeds. The memory pictured is obviously TSOP, so it must be running at 400MHz even though the specs list the higher clock speed.

So are ALL the 256MB 9600 Pros with TSOP running at 400MHz, despite specs that list 600MHz or even 660MHz clocks like this card?

Have you seen any video cards using TSOP run at 600mhz (not overclocked that is)? I geuss it has to be BGA when it comes to getting 600mhz default speed.

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: Pete
How do I get newegg to pay my return shipping costs?
Um, just call them. Their number isn't hard to find on their site. I had to call them because of a mix-up with a previous order, and they answered pretty quickly. Or you could just e-mail them, but I prefer actually talking to someone.

Oh ok, will do. Thanks

 

[Pete]

I'm pretty sure the 4600 had TSOP memory at 300MHz or faster, and the 4400 and 8500 came close with 275MHz TSOP. You're right that 9600s seem to use BGA for 300+MHz, and TSOP for anything less, though. I thought using TSOP was part of the reason this 9600P was so much cheaper than others, basically limiting your OCing potential.

 

[ss284]

Originally posted by: Pete
I'm pretty sure the 4600 had TSOP memory at 300MHz or faster, and the 4400 and 8500 came close with 275MHz TSOP. You're right that 9600s seem to use BGA for 300+MHz, and TSOP for anything less, though. I thought using TSOP was part of the reason this 9600P was so much cheaper than others, basically limiting your OCing potential.

All gf4 ti4400 and 4600's used BGA ram. The fastest TSOP i have seen has been on retail radeon boards, at 3.6 and 3.3 ns. Anything less than that is BGA. Since his card is clocked at a default 400 mhz effective, and not the standard 600, something is defnitely wrong with newegg's ad.



-Steve

 

[Blastman]

Originally posted by: batmanuel

So are ALL the 256MB 9600 Pros with TSOP running at 400MHz, despite specs that list 600MHz or even 660MHz clocks like this card?

Yes. All 256MB 9600pro?s have 200MHz DDR (400 effective). The 128MB 9600pro ?EZ? also have 200Mhz DDR. If you want the faster 300MHz DDR on a 9600pro you must get a 128MB model.

Some of the Sapphire 256MB 9600XT?s shipped with Samsung 3.3ns TSOP memory clocked 300MHz DDR. The newer ones are showing up with slower clocked TSOP at 250MHz DDR (not sure the ns rating --probably 3.6ns). According Samsungs site TSOP can go up to 400MHz DDR but I?ve never seen faster than 300DDR TSOP on a card. In any case, all 9600pro?s with TSOP are 200 DDR.

 

[eLiu]

I called newegg, and they were very friendly/helpful--the customer service lady gave me and RMA and waived the 15% after I explained the problem.

That was cool...went really easy--I guess I'll definitely keep buying from newegg.

 

[batmanuel]

I've sent newegg an e-mail about this, since it seems like the Sapphires are also listed as having the 600MHz memory. It is understandable, since most of the time these days it is hard to tell exactly what you are getting until you open the box with a lot of lower-tier manufacturers, but they need to fix it if all those TSOP cards are running slower RAM than the specs list.

 

[eLiu]

Is this a *real* 9600pro with the 600mhz memory? The memory chips are square...that means they're BGA 600mhz, yes? I don't want to buy the wrong thing again...

-Eric

 

[Blastman]

Originally posted by: eLiu
Is this a *real* 9600pro with the 600mhz memory? The memory chips are square...that means they're BGA 600mhz, yes?

Yup.

 

[Gagabiji]

Is it just me or does it say "9600/XT" in 1 (the other is blurry) of the pictures.

 

[eLiu]

Thanks for confirming that for me blastman

Originally posted by: SirDude
Is it just me or does it say "9600/XT" in 1 (the other is blurry) of the pictures.

Huh?