[H]ard|OCP reviews ATI's Radeon 9600 XT
On October 1st we introduced two brand new video cards from ATI. At the high-end we took an in-depth look at the Radeon 9800XT and compared it to its predecessor a Radeon 9800Pro as well as the competition's GFFX 5900 Ultra. We found that the image quality and gaming experience delivered on the 9800XT was the best you can find. The only caveat is the high retail price of US$499. Of course the high-end enthusiast market is not the only one ATI is focusing on. While the high-end market generates a lot of press, and a lot of buzz, it is the mainstream and budget markets that bring the profit dollars home. These levels of graphics cards will sell the most as the price point is much more appealing to many more people. The video cards at these price points need to be low cost, yet well performing video cards. The video card we are focusing on today is a "mainstream" market card. That denotes performance and price, usually a good bit of performance above the budget cards, but a price usually below the US$200 retail price point...by a cent.
The Radeon 9600XT is poised to throne itself king of the mainstream market. The predecessor to the Radeon 9600XT is the Radeon 9600Pro. That card is based on the RV350 VPU and was the first VPU from ATI to be built on the .13 micron process. Along with that process, ATI was able to achieve higher core frequencies while still not requiring any secondary power sources. The RV360 (9600XT) continues this tradition with even higher core clock while working inside of AGP power constraints...
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