Fall 2003 Video Card Roundup - Part 3: ATI's Radeon 9600 XT
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on October 15, 2003 10:26 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Test
We used the exact same test bed and settings as our Catalyst 3.8 review, the only difference here was that we benchmarked at 1024x768 given the power and target market of the Radeon 9600 XT. We also used the "almost final" version of the 52 series Detonators from NVIDIA (52.16) which have been submitted for WHQL certification.
As a refresher, here are the games we benchmarked with:
Aquamark3
C&C Generals: Zero Hour
EVE: The Second Genesis
F1 Challenge '99-'02
Final Fantasy XI
GunMetal
Halo
Homeworld 2
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Neverwinter Nights: Shadow of Undrendtide
SimCity 4
Splinter Cell
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
Tron 2.0
Unreal Tournament 2003
Warcraft III: Frozen Throne
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
X2: The Threat
Our testbed remained the same:
AMD Athlon64 FX51
1GB DDR400 (2x512MB)
ASUS nForce3 motherboard
The only issues we encountered were as follows:
1) Homeworld 2 would not run on either the Radeon 9600 Pro or the Radeon 9600 XT. This is the same issue we ran into the first time we tried to run this benchmark on ATI hardware. Interestingly enough, it works on all of ATI’s high end cards – just not their midrange hardware.
2) Tomb Raider would not run on the GeForce FX 5600 Ultra with the latest 52.16 drivers at 1024x768. The game kept on returning an out of memory error at any resolution higher than 1024x768. Given that we tested with a 128MB card and none of the other cards had a problem, this seems like more of a driver issue or a game issue than anything else.
3) Since the GeForce4 Ti 4200 only supports PS1.1, we could not include this card in the Tomb Raider tests either. Performance under PS1.1 is much higher than performance under PS2.0, so the comparison would not be fair to ATI if we ran all of their hardware using PS2.0 and ran the Ti 4200 in PS1.1 mode.
We have not had time to go back and figure out a benchmark for BF1942 yet nor work out the issues with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. We haven’t received much feedback in terms of any ideas for benchmarking under these two games, but we’re still open to suggestions.
For image quality comparisons refer back to our Fall 2003 Video Card Roundup - Part 2.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the games.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
70 Comments
View All Comments
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
Before anyone else beats me to it,NVIDIA HAS FAILED
sorry, just had to say it.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
#8 = TrollAnonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
I CAN'T UNDERSTAND HOW THEY GOT SUCH LOW SCORES ON THE GEFROCE FX 5600 ULTRAI BUILT COMPUTERS FOR A LIVING AND OFTEN BENCHMARK THESE SYSTEMS FOR MYSELF
TAKE GUNMETAL FOR EXAMPLE
THE 5600 ULTRA SCORED 14.5FPS
ON A ATHLON XP 2600 KT400 DDR333 GEFORCE FX 5600 NON-ULTRA I GET 25FPS
NOT TO MENTION I GET 47FPS ON A 5900
HOW IS IT THAT WITH SUPERIOR HARDWARE THEY SCORED %40 LOWER?
WHAT BULLSHIT IS THIS...
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
#4If we are talking about <$2.00 burritos, how about including some tacos? Does it make sense? Tacos are cheeper because of the hard, quite unedible shell. However, because a burrito can be warmed, the shell is of soft phsophate.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
How do you get an FPS rating from WarCraft 3?Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
Enough of the speculation of when NVIDA products will come out. May I point you to a quote from the Radeon 9700 Pro review:"NV30 will be out around December"
The product didn't actually make its way out until March, and even in limited volumes then.
Telling people to wait on the 5700 Ultra doesn’t make much sense.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
If we are talking about <$200 cards, how about include the 9800se. It can be had for $170 and it seems like it would be a decent performer, especially if overclocked. Can we also include the 9800se (non-pro) in future reviews?thanks
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
As an owner of a Geforce 4 ti4200, I apreciate having it included in the lineup, as it shows me that unless I have the cash to dish out for a 9700+, it's not realy worth it :) Great review!Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
A 100Mhz increase in core clock frequency! The benifit of buying this card becomes apparent in future titles, not current ones. My guess is the gap between 9600XT and 9700 pro will close significantly in Half-Life2 or Doom3 =).I also truely hope the GeforceFX 5700 will beable to dish out more damage then the 5600. No fun buying from just one company.
As for me, I doubt ill find a reason to upgrade my 9500pro for quite some time. Anyone who bought a card with the R3XX on it should not upgrade until DX10 comes out.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
bad link:page:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1904...
says:
Halo Performance but goes to Homeworld 2.