Radeon 9500 Pro Battle Sapphire vs. Gigabyte

Radeon 9500 Pro Battle Sapphire vs. Gigabyte - Page 2

The Gigabyte Maya II R9500 Pro
vs.
The Sapphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis Pro
Premium Performance, Mainstream Price

By - Tom Laverriere
& Marco Chiappetta
February 3, 2003

The Gigabyte Maya II R9500 Pro
Reference Radeon with a twist...

    

         

    

The Gigabyte 9500 Pro card is quite a vision.  The red PCB and mostly everything else follows the reference design of the "Built by ATI" products.  One feature that does not stick to the reference design is the gold heat sink and fan housing.  The cooler is held in place by two plastic spring clips and a look below this massive cooler reveals the R300 chip.  Between the cooler and the chip is a thick thermal pad to help dissipate the heat given off by the VPU.  The RAM does not have any cooling applied to it and one must wonder why this is.  It may have something to do with the idea of the R9500 Pro's being "clock locked".  Maybe Gigabyte felt since overclocking would not be an option, there was no need to cool the RAM.  The external plate has both an Analog and DVI connector as well as a TV-Video output connector.  These connectors can take advantage of the VPU's ability to power two displays at the same time.  Depending on the needs of the user, either two monitors or a monitor and a TV can be driven.  This is a nice feature to have especially when playing games.  Let's move on to the Sapphire and see how this card compares...

 

The Sapphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis Pro
Another Red Radeon...

    

         

         

 

It looks as though Sapphire also chose to stick to the reference design of ATI.  The Sapphire also did not have cooling on the RAM and opted for a much smaller radial heat sink and fan on over the VPU.  The Sapphire's round heat sink fan is held in place by two plastic spring clips and a look beneath reveals the chip and the thermal grease used as the TIM ( Thermal Interface Material ).  The external plate has the very same outputs as the Gigabyte therefore allowing for two devices to be hooked up simultaneously.  There is not much else to note out of the ordinary, with the physical appearance of this card.  I think it's time to plug these babies in and see what they can do...   

Screenshots and The Drivers


Tags:  Radeon, Gigabyte, Sapphire, ATT, App, SAP, pro, AP

Related content