ATi announces Radeon 9800, 9600, and 9200
<a href="http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1794" target="_blank">http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1794</a>
Well, ATi has a new, faster Radeon, and the Radeon 9700 Pro Mac still hasn't shipped. Fewy!
Basically, the 9800 Pro is a higher clocked version of the 9700 Pro with additional shader support and improved AA. The Radeon 9800 Pro matches the nVidia GeForce FX 5800 Ultra in most tests, and creams it when AA is turned on. It's also quieter than the Geforce FX, so it doesn't sound like a lawnmower.
ATi also announced the Radeon 9200 Pro which replaces the Radeon 9000 Pro, and the Radeon 9600 Pro which replaces the Radeon 9500 Pro. Don't be fooled, though; the 9200 Pro is just an 8X AGP version of the 9000 Pro. It's not any faster, it's not any slower, and it still only supports DX8.1.
The Radeon 9600 Pro is ATi's new, mainstream DX9/OpenGL 2.0 card. It's not clear whether it will be faster or slower than the 9500 Pro, as the 9600 Pro has yet to be benchmarked. It might be slower since the Radeon 9600 Pro is a different arcitexuture with fewer pixel pipelines than the 9500 Pro. On the other hand, the 9600 Pro has a faster core and memory, and since ATi is citing it a replacement to the 9500 Pro, it should be faster, right? The real question is, will it be faster than GeForce FX 5200, which nVidia should announce later today?
[ 03-06-2003: Message edited by: Kecksy ]</p>
Well, ATi has a new, faster Radeon, and the Radeon 9700 Pro Mac still hasn't shipped. Fewy!
Basically, the 9800 Pro is a higher clocked version of the 9700 Pro with additional shader support and improved AA. The Radeon 9800 Pro matches the nVidia GeForce FX 5800 Ultra in most tests, and creams it when AA is turned on. It's also quieter than the Geforce FX, so it doesn't sound like a lawnmower.
ATi also announced the Radeon 9200 Pro which replaces the Radeon 9000 Pro, and the Radeon 9600 Pro which replaces the Radeon 9500 Pro. Don't be fooled, though; the 9200 Pro is just an 8X AGP version of the 9000 Pro. It's not any faster, it's not any slower, and it still only supports DX8.1.
The Radeon 9600 Pro is ATi's new, mainstream DX9/OpenGL 2.0 card. It's not clear whether it will be faster or slower than the 9500 Pro, as the 9600 Pro has yet to be benchmarked. It might be slower since the Radeon 9600 Pro is a different arcitexuture with fewer pixel pipelines than the 9500 Pro. On the other hand, the 9600 Pro has a faster core and memory, and since ATi is citing it a replacement to the 9500 Pro, it should be faster, right? The real question is, will it be faster than GeForce FX 5200, which nVidia should announce later today?
[ 03-06-2003: Message edited by: Kecksy ]</p>
Comments
Could Apple be delaying current Mac orders of 9700's for this?
[ 03-06-2003: Message edited by: RodUK ]</p>
[ 03-06-2003: Message edited by: Kecksy ]</p>
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
Seriously though, it would be good if they just skipped over the 9700 Pro for the Mac and gave us the new cards. It's my birthday soon and I want one!
<strong>Probably. Steve Jobs is an idiot.</strong><hr></blockquote>
It still sucks royally, but there you go. I think ATi is finally getting around to addressing their reputation on the PC side for terrible drivers.
<strong>The thing I don't understand is why wouldnt ATI just skip over the 9700 and concentrate on making drivers for their next generation card if they knew the 9700 wouldnt be ready before they could announce the 9800 on the PC side. I mean, how much different could the drivers be? THe 9800 isnt ALL that far from the 9700, it's just a beefed up version. I figure that if we have the 9700 drivers for Mac, it might even be possible to flash the 9800 Pro for PC to work in a Mac.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yeah, the 9700 Pro Mac still isn't shipping yet, which makes me wonder whether they'll just replace it with a 9800 Pro. Would be nice.