SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600 REVIEW

"In this article we test the Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 against the Inno3D GeForce 5200 Ultra, Inno3D GeForce 5200 SE and MSI GeForce4 Ti4200. Software used for benchmarking was:- 3dmark 2001 SE, 3dmark 2003, GL Excess, Nvidia Dawn, Comanche4, Max Payne 2, Quake III Arena, Serious Sam SE, Unreal Tournament 2003 and X2 The Threat."

Embodying the unbridled dreams of the avid gamer the Radeon™ 9600 Atlantis Smartshader™ 2.1 and Smoothvision™ 2.1 technologies construct detail rich worlds peppered with ill-intentioned villains brought to life by DirectX® 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0.

128MB DDR memory accelerates the latest 3D games. Double Data Rate memory removes hardware performance bottleneck and provides end users with faster 3D graphics. Industry's only 4-pipeline graphics solution in its 2nd generation, providing twice the rendering power of any currently competing product.

Supports the new AGP 8X standard, providing a high-speed link between the graphics board and the rest of the PC (2.0 GB/sec). First to fully support DirectX® 9.0 and the latest OpenGL® functionality. New Smartshader™ 2.1 technology allows users to experience complex, movie-quality effects in next-generation 3D games and applications.

Smoothvision™ 2.1 technology enhances image quality by removing jagged edges and bringing out fine texture detail, without compromising performance. 128-bit floating-point color precision allows for a greater range of colors and brightness.

Unique Videoshader™ engine uses programmable pixel shaders to accelerate video processing and provide better-looking visuals. ATI's new Fullstream™ technology removes blocky artifacts from Streaming and Internet video and provides sharper image quality.

NVIDIA DAWN 41 20 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600 INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 ULTRA INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 SE MSI GEFORCE4 TI4200 COMMENT - "The MSI GF4 Ti4200 was unable to run this demo because it doesn't support DX9 and the Inno3D GeForce 5200 Ultra was unavailable for testing. ATI video cards aren't usually able to run this demo but after a google search it was working perfectly. The Sapphire Radeon 9600 was able to put in a great result and the demo ran smoothly at over 40fps."

SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS 3DMARK 2001 SE 8400 9119 5456 10202 3DMARK 2003 2405 1919 1090 1481 GLEXCESS 6518 7311 4798 6710 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600 INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 ULTRA INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 SE MSI GEFORCE4 TI4200 COMMENT - "The Sapphire Radeon 9600 slips into 3rd place with the DX8 benchmark 3dmark 2001 SE behind the Inno3D GeForce 5200 Ultra and MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 video cards. However with the DX9 benchmark 3dmark 2003 it's able to storm past the other three video cards and into first place. With the opengl benchmark GL Excess the Sapphire Radeon 9600 slumps back into third place but only 192 points behind the second placed MSI GeForce4 Ti4200." BENCHMARK SETTINGS 3DMARK 2001 SE 1024x768 Resolution 32Bit color D3D Hardware T&L Antialiasing Disabled Double Frame Buffer Compressed Texture Format 24Bit Z-Buffer Depth 3DMARK 2003 1024x768 Resolution No Pixel Processing Optimal Texture Filtering 4x Max Anisotropy Optimal Vertex Shaders No Repeat Tests No Fixed Framerate GLEXCESS5 1024x768 Resolution Scene 1 Intro Scene 2 Waver Scene 3 Facescape Scene 4 Exploding Logo