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ATi
Radeon Showcase |
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ATi's
little red devils |
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ATi's Radeon 9600XT
CLICK ANY IMAGE FOR AN
ENLARGED VIEW
The
driving force behind the ATi Radeon 9600XT is the RV360
core, basically a ramped up version of the RV350 with a
100MHz boost in clock speed. It is also ATi's first graphics
core to be based on a low-k dielectric 0.13 micron
manufacturing process. The
effects of this are two-fold, allowing for higher clock
speeds yet requiring less power consumption. The reduced
power needs of the card are obvious when one notices that
the 9600 XT does not require any external power
connections, even though the core is running at 500MHz.
The reduced power consumption and capacitance should also
lessen the heat produced by the VPU, although ATi has
still included an oversized aluminum heatsink with a
built-in 40mm fan. It's custom fit, covering all of the
space south of the capacitors and stopping just shy of the
RAM. The heatsink is mounted using two spring-loaded
retentions clips, and although it may be hard to see in the
photo, it makes a solid connection with the RV360.
ATi's Radeon 9800 Pro
ATi's
Radeon 9800 Pro cooling system is svelte; the cooling fan
is quiet and the card takes only one slot location in
your chassis. It's the way a graphics card should be
designed and the way OEMs want to build them; neat,
clean and easy. The heatsink ATi went with this time
around, is actually slightly less bulky than even a
retail Radeon 9700 Pro board but it does a nice job of
keeping the chip cool under full load. The memory
used on this board actually runs pretty hot under gaming
conditions. Regardless, they are fast and rock solid
stable up to even 350MHz DDR and higher.
Finally, the 4 pin Molex power connector on the 9800 Pro
is much easier to work with (and more abundant in your
system) than the Floppy Drive power connector used on
earlier models. Also notice the tiny 2 position Dip
Switch on the board, right next to the fan power
connector. This is for switching to NTSC or
PAL format on the TV output of the card.
Asus' Radeon
9800XT/TVD
The first thing that jumped out at us with regard to the
Asus Radeon 9800 XT/TVD was the bright orange PCB. It's
definitely unique!
The Asus Radeon 9800 XT/TVD conforms to ATi's
reference board design, with the exception of the large,
dual-fan, copper heat-pipe cooler. The 256MB of
high-speed memory used on the 9800 XT was manufactured by Hynix, and
was cooled on both sides by
the custom Asus heatsink. The heatsink itself is mounted
with spring-loaded screws that keep the plates firmly in
place. The coolers used on these cards don't encroach on
the adjacent PCI slot and we found them to be virtually
inaudible next to our CPU's heatsink/fan combo. This
card comes equipped with single DVI and DB15 monitor
connectors and ATi's Rage Theater chip, which gives this
9800XT its ViVo capabilities.
Comparisons in image quality |