Radeon9600/9600Pro Review @B3D

[BenSkywalker]

Link. The RV350 seems to be a bit behind the R300 boards they replace. Surprisingly, the gap widens with AA+AF.

 

[Intelman07]

I think I'll still get my 9500Pro

 

[chizow]

Should only worsen for the 9600pro once the Cat 3.3's are out. As expected, the new board gets an optimized driver path, the older board is dummied down. We'll have to revisit these results when the 3.3's are released; should be closer now that we've cleared the hurdle of 9600pro reviews (ATi wouldn't want to release 3.3 w/out first getting published benches on the 9600).

Chiz

Edit: B3D mentions Cat 3.3 "week commencing April 21st", so it looks like sometime next week!

 

[DaveSimmons]

This is annoying (9500 > 9600) but not as bad as with nvidia (4200 > 5600 in most of the Tomshardware benches). Sad when marketing pushes for these misleading model numbers to fool consumers.

 

[human2k]

Too bad it doesn't use the same 9700 PRO PCB, woulda been cool if you could softmod it to a 9700.

 

[bluemax]

Reading now... REALLY hope they have a fanless version for my silent Shuttle box!

EDIT: Yaay! Sapphire makes a fanless 9600 NP!

EDIT2: Well, the 9600 is slower than the 9500 Pro... most of us were expecting that much. I was rather hoping it would be CHEAPER though... but it's (so far) being released at ~$200US.

The sub-$100 GFFX 5200 is looking a little more my ticket - unless the 9600 NP comes down in price quickly... and Sapphire is usually a fair bit cheaper than ATI Retail.

 

[DaveBaumann]

FYI, Sapphire are also doing a 'Mini-Zalman' 9600 PRO 'Ultimate Edition':

Link