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The
RADEON 9500 Family |
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Potential GeForce4
Ti 4200 Killer |
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Vital Stats:
RADEON 9500
Pro: 275/540MHz core/memory, R300 core with eight parallel
rendering pipelines, 128MB of DDR memory on a 128-bit data
path (8.6GB/s of bandwidth)
RADEON 9500: 275/540MHz, R300 core with four parallel
rendering pipelines, 64MB of DDR memory on a 128-bit data
path (8.6GB/s of bandwidth)
Seeing as
the RADEON 9700 Pro costs $399 and the RADEON 9700
costs $299, there is still plenty of room for less expensive
?mainstream? alternatives. This is where ATI has positioned
the 9500 series, in which there are two cards. The first,
the RADEON 9500 Pro, is like the more powerful 9700 series
except for its 128-bit memory architecture. With 128MB of
DDR memory effectively clocked at 540MHz, the card?s memory
bus can transfer up to 8.6GB per second of data ? a
stark contrast to what the 9700 series is capable of, but
ideal for comparison against NVIDIA?s GeForce4 Ti 4200. The
R300 chip is the same, supporting DirectX 9, eight rendering
pipelines and AGP8X, and like the RADEON 9700, the 9500 Pro
incorporates a 275MHz core.
When the
board debuts in November, it will sell for $219, minus a $20
mail-in rebate. ATI claims the 9500 Pro will outperform the
Ti 4200 by up to 40% in 3D Mark 2001 SE, making the card an
impressive value for a gamer wanting the latest features but
interested in saving some money as well.
The RADEON
9500 brings up the tail end of ATI?s DX9 family. It
features the same 275MHz R300 processor and 128-bit memory
bus as the 9500 Pro, only the R300 on the 9500 features
"only" four functional
rendering pipelines rather than eight. Yet, Even with
half of the pixel fillrate of its older brother, ATI
maintains that the 9500 will perform up to 20% better than
the Ti 4200 in 3D Mark 2001 SE. We'll have to wait
until we get a card to verify this though. When equipped with 64MB of DDR
memory, the RADEON 9500 is slated to debut at $179.
Nowadays,
many companies have fallen into the habit of unveiling
hardware without making available either retail product or
early samples for evaluation. With that in mind, we?ll have
to wait for another day before judgment can be passed on the
RADEON 9700 or either of the RADEON 9500 cards. ATI
has, of course, provided its own "independent" benchmarks
that show the 9700 and 9500 series besting the targeted
competition in a few clearly chosen optimal situations, but
whether that analysis holds true for all other gaming
scenarios remains to be seen.
You may
have noticed that third-party manufacturers and ATI
currently offer RADEON 9700 Pro cards. ATI will continue
manufacturing boards with the ?Pro? designation, mainly the
9700 Pro, 9500 Pro and 9000 Pro, while companies like
Sapphire Technology and Hercules will be able to manufacture
boards based on any of ATI?s processors.
For the
first time, ATI has a product lineup that competes against
NVIDIA's best effort. On paper, the RADEON 9700 and
9500 series hold an advantage over anything carrying the
GeForce4 moniker, however, even when the 9500 series of
cards become available, they will still cost more than a
GeForce4 Ti 4200. The same thing goes for the vanilla
9700 - the GeForce4 Ti 4600 can be found for around $240 or
so. Then, there's the NV30 factor. NVIDIA's
next-generation graphics processor doesn't mean much to the
cards being unveiled today, but if the rumors turn out to be
true, it will very likely usurp
the RADEON 9700 Pro from its performance throne.
Undoubtedly, NVIDIA will craft an entire line to compete
with what is presented here, just as ATI has done.
It's great
to see ATI pushing DirectX9 into the mainstream.
Unfortunately, game development still takes time, so it will
be a while before we are able to fully realize the
true benefit of DX9 compliance. Nevertheless, the RADEON
9500 series should be able to give NVIDIA's best-selling Ti
4200 a run for its money and the 9700 should do the same for
the Ti 4600. The NV30 isn't far off, though, so expect the
graphics scene to get even more interesting sooner rather
than later.
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