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More
Quality with Quake 3 |
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64-TAP Anisotropic
Filtering |
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The first thing
you might notice is that we didn't include any MX440
reference numbers. There is a good reason for this,
the GeForce4 MX440 is not capable of 64-TAP Anisotropic
Filtering. That didn't stop us from running the other
three cards though, so let's get to it.
This time
around, the Radeon 8500LE took the prize in all three tests,
but the Radeon 9000 Pro maintained a lead over the Ti4200
through out. Like we said when we started, Anisotropic
is historically ATi's strong point, and this still holds
true with the Radeon 9000 Pro.
As it stands right now, it looks
like ATi has a couple of winners on their hands with the
Radeon 9000 and 9700 series cards. With the Radeon
9000 Pro, ATi has done nice job at coming up with a
value based video card which delivers on its promise of
exceeding the performance of the MX440. In fact, we
found that the performance of the 9000 Pro was superior in
virtually every test, even stepping into the Ti4200's
territory from time to time. Entering the market at a
price of $129, the 9000 Pro falls right in the middle of the
MX and Ti4200 which we've seen as low as $80 and $140
respectively. The only thing that makes us hesitate on
the life expectancy of the Radeon 9000 series, is the
timing. ATi is taking on the well established GeForce4
MX and Ti4200 cards, aiming to offer a powerful alternative
to the popular low price GF4 line. However, if history
repeats itself, then nVidia is probably looming in the
shadows with their own new product line and we wonder where
the Radeon 9000 will fit then. We'll just have to wait
and see. For now, we're giving the Radeon 9000 a
HotHardware Heat Meter Rating of...
ATi Radeon
9000Pro
The Radeon
9700 series, on the other hand, is completely ground
breaking technology. This is definitely ATi's most
impressive 3D Graphics solution to date, with the technology
and horsepower that should allow it to completely blow
anything available on the market, right out of the water.
Although none were available for a full review at this time,
we expect from what we've seen on paper and behind closed
doors, with preliminary benchmarks, that the Radeon 9700
will steal the limelight from any GeForce card currently
available. The operative word here is "currently".
NVIDIA is rumored to be readying it's NV30 for release
sometime late in Q4. We'll just have to wait and see
but all indications are that, with a .13 micron die
geometry, they'll be able to squeeze a ton of leading edge
technology into that GPU.
For now, it's
advantage ATi and in a big way. Stay tuned to
HotHardware.com in the next couple of weeks, as we get our
Radeon 9700 test board in house and run it through a
gauntlet of benchmarks! Who knows, maybe even Epic
will send in Unreal 2003 for testing. (big gasp...
we're holding our breath)
HotHardware's PC Hardware Forum is all the rage! Are
you in?
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