Radeon 9000 looks promising, maybe the next geforce 3 ti200!

[Xtasy]

For those people that are looking for a good gaming card, but nothing over $80, the radeon 9000 looks pretty good. I didn't try it yet, but i paid $70 for it locally and it came with hynix 4ns ram, pretty sweet. It seems that it can overclock pretty close to the 9000 pro clock level.
Hopefully the 3dmark2k1 scores will be just as good as a geforce 3. Also, it doesn't have a fan, so it will be a plus to those who want quiet computers.

 

[AnAndAustin]

I think you'll still find the Rad9000, or even Rad9000pro a fair bit behind a GF3TI200 in the majority of benchmarks, even more so when the cards are o/c'ed. The Rad9000 cards are far better than the GF4MX alternatives, but IMHO 99% of people would be better off with a Rad8500 card which should come in at a similar price and give much better perf. Rad9000 cards are pretty nice, but while there are still Rad8500 cards around they don't seem like the best choice.

Anyway, your Rad9000 should be clocked at 250/400 but with 4ns you should get 250/500 easy if not close to 250/550. Whilst having no fan helps these cards to run quietly it will of course hider o/c'ing, but more so the core than the RAM. Adding a fan should allow you to get about 275/550 I should imagine. Let us know what you find!

 

[rogue1979]

Radeon 9000 Pro says different. In the comparisons the Radeon 9000 Pro easily matched a regular Geforce 3 (not Ti200) in all the tests. Put a fan on the heatsink and I am sure the 9000 will hit 9000 Pro stock core and memory speeds. While some Geforce3 Ti200's can hit near Ti500 speeds, many of the cheapest Ti200's are only reaching regular Geforce3 speeds. The 9000 is no where near the fastest or greatest video card, but hands down it takes the new budget/performance crown. Listed at $69 currently on pricewatch vs. $86 for Geforce3 Ti200, it is priced much closer to Geforce2 Ti and Radeon 7500 territory while being fully DirectX 8.1 compliant. Of course I would prefer a Geforce4 Ti4600 or the Radeon 9700, but I will never shell out $300+ for a video card. The bang for the buck on the Radeon 9000 has impressed me enough to buy one from Newegg for $70 shipped. I will post back here with the overclocking results when it arrives.

 

[AnAndAustin]

I understand your point rogue1979, it's just when GF3TI200 came out it was at the leading edge of technology and not competing in the budget end and gave VERY near top of the range perf when o/c'ed and was half the price. The 'budget end' back then would have been TNT2 type territory. The Rad9000 cards are the best budget choices, but with GF3 and Rad8500 hardly costing any more, certainly to the 9000pro they are IMHO a better buy for the vast majority of people. Rad9000 cards whip GF2, GF4MX, Xabre and Rad7500 after all that is what they are intended to do, the fact they can compete against GF3 is simply a great bonus. I think the 4200 was more of what the GF3TI200 used to be, but things have changed and now it seems the Rad9500 should bring that to the table once again.

I'd be very interested in how far those Rad9000 cards can go and esp what ns RAM they use, they are great for the money, no doubt there, but the sub-$100 section of the market is littered with options and bargains.

Pricewatch:

KyroII $37
Rad7500 $52
GF4MX420 $58
GF2TI $60
GF4MX440 $64
Rad9000 $69
Xabre200 $73
Rad9000pro $85
GF3 $85
GF3TI200 $86
Rad8500 $87
GF3TI500 $100
Xabre400 $104
GF4MX460 $107
GF4TI4200 $123 (not exactly sub-$100 BUT worth consideration)

I haven't seen any reviews of the plain Rad9000 but it's perf would be about 20% slower than the Rad9000pro. Here's what I've found on Rad9000PRO:

AnAndTech
Firing Squad
HardOCP
Tech Report

 

[rogue1979]

Well said

 

[Xtasy]

Darn, the store where my cousin got her 9000 had the 9000 pro for only $12 more, shoulda recommended that instead. Still didn't try it out yet but i am expecting something big, like how those people discovered the radeon le, geforce 3 ti200, etc... Reading a early user review from newegg, someone with a sapphire 128mb radeon 9000 non-pro got his card to 300/560 and hasn't reached the wall yet.

 

[AnAndAustin]

WOW! With the standard clocks being 9000=250/400 and 9000pro=275/550 a Rad9000 reaching 300/560 is fantastic news. So long as they use 4ns RAM they should hit 520-560 very easily. The GF3, GF4 and Rad8500 seem to use pretty much an identical core respectively across the range of cards, hence why a GF3TI200 often gets from 175 to 240 (TI500 core), GF4TI4200 go from 250 to 300 (4600 core) etc. So it stands to reason the same is true for the Rad9000 and 9000pro. So providing both Rad9000 use 4ns RAM they should o/c to VERY near the same speeds which would be about 300/550. If the Rad9000pro uses 3.6ns then 300/600+ should be doable, but I doubt this, surely if that's the case ATI would have set these clocks a little higher?

 

[Dunjon]

I hadn't really given much thought about the 9000's but didn't know they could be bought online for under a hundred. A few questions tho...

How good is the Tv-out? The card doesn't seem to have a Rage Theater chip on it so its tv-out may not be up to par as the 8500 and 7500. Tv-out is acutally very important to me seeing how this computer will hooked up to the tv only.

Are there any 128 megs versions out yet??

 

[natopotato]

TV out on the 9000 is on par with the 85/7500. the same rage theater chip is still there in sprit, ATI just moved it on die to save money.

 

[rbV5]

How good is the Tv-out? The card doesn't seem to have a Rage Theater chip on it so its tv-out may not be up to par as the 8500 and 7500.

It has basic Rage Theater embedded in the core, just like the 7500 series. It's TV-out is absolutely up to par with Radeon cards. The Rage Theater will still be necissary for advanced Rage Theater functions like VIVO(same as the 7500 series cards), and will be a "daughter card" arraingement.

It also supports the component video dongle whivch is not supported on the 7500(or earlier) Radeon cards.