ATi Radeon 9000 and Radeon 9700 Preview

Name: ATi Radeon 9000 and Radeon 9700 Preview - Page 5
Brand: ATi

by HH Editor — Thursday, July 18, 2002, 12:00 AM EDT

The ATi Radeon 9000 and Radeon 9700 Preview
ATi 's Next Generation Products Unveiled

By, Jeff Bouton
July 18, 2002

The Hot Hardware Test System

Pentium 4 Power

Pentium 4 2.4GHz. (533 Bus)
Abit IT7 Motherboard i845E
256MB Corsair PC2700 (CAS2)
ATi Radeon 9000 Pro
ATi Radeon 8500LE
nVidia GeForce4 Ti4200
60GB IBM 60GXP Hard Drive
On-Board Realtek Audio
WindowsXP Professional
Intel Chipset Drivers 4.00.1013
Intel Application Accelerator Version 2.2

ATi has made it clear that their goal is to offer a powerful alternative to nVidia's affordable GeForce4 MX line with the new Radeon 9000 series. The question is, how successful will this approach be when the 9000 series will enter the market in the range of $109 - $129 MSRP? We've seen GeForce4 MX440s selling in the low $80 range and the MX460 for $125. As far as the 9000 Pro goes, we think that, dollar for dollar, the nVidia Ti4200 could possibly be a more accurate comparison at $143. So in our tests we ran the ATi Radeon 9000 Pro versus a GeForce4 MX440 and a GeForce4 Ti4200. We also thought that we'd throw a Radeon 8500LE into the mix to give an idea of how the new 9000 Pro compares to its older brother. (All prices collected at www.newegg.com)

Benchmarking the Radeon 9000 Pro With 3DMark2001SE & Comanche 4

DirectX 8.1 Performance!

We thought we would start of our benchmarks by testing the Radeon 9000 Pro for DirectX 8.1 performance. What better programs to do this than 3DMark2001SE and Comanche 4?

3DMark2001SE

With 3DMark2001SE, the Radeon 9000 had no trouble maintaining a solid lead over the MX440, but lagged behind the slower 8500LE. Let's see if the same pattern holds true with Comanche 4.

Comanche 4

At 1024x768 and 1280x1024, the Radeon 9000 Pro once again held firm with a narrow lead over the MX440. However as the resolution increased to 1600x1200, the 9000 Pro slipped, giving the MX440 the edge. Once again, there was no comparison to the older 8500LE and Ti4200.

Now we'll kick it into OpenGL mode and give it to the Radeon 9000 Pro from all angles...

OpenGL Testing