| |
Date: | September
11th, 2002 | | Type: | Mini
Review | | Supplier: | n/a |
| Author: | mayhem |
| RRP: | $850
AUS | Introduction:
With nVidia based GeForce
4 Ti4600 graphics cards leading the market for the past few months it is good
to see some competition reappear with the introduction of the ATI based Radeon
9700 series graphics cards. Today
we were lucky enough to receive our first shipment of these cards at work and
decided to do a little bit of testing of our own to see with our own eyes the
power. 
Specifications:
"RADEON 9700 PRO is the
world's fastest* and most advanced graphics board, featuring ATI's RADEON 9700
PRO Visual Processing Unit (VPU). Through a combination of incredible 3D rendering
performance, sophisticated real-time visual effects, unsurpassed image quality
and cutting-edge video features, it takes the PC entertainment experience to a
totally new level." - ATi
- 128MB DDR Memory
- 256-bit
Memory Interface
- Industry's
first 8-pixel pipeline architecture
- Supports
the new AGP 8X standard (2.0 GB/sec)
- First
to fully support DirectX 9.0 and the latest OpenGL functionality
- New
SMARTSHADER 2.0 technology
- SMOOTHVISION
2.0 technology
- 128-bit
floating-point color precision
- Unique
VIDEOSHADER engine
-
ATI's new FULLSTREAM technology
Testing:
Enough with the
specs and boring stuff and now into the actual testing. In
order to get a wide range of results we used three rather different systems that
were available to us, we tested the systems as they where with their original
cards and then once again with the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. (Note:
We used 3D Mark 2001 SE for our benchmarking) Test
System #1:
Pentium 4 2.4GHz (Standard HSF)
ASUS P4S533 Motherboard
256MB DDR PC2100 Memory
Aopen 52xCD-ROM
Leadtek GeForce 4 MX440 64MB DDR
Western Digital 40GB 7200RPM Hard Disk
Windows 2000 Pro (Service Pack 3)
3D Marks: 5881 (Using 30.82 Detonator Drivers) Test
System #2:
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ @ 1.61GHz (140FSB) (Volcano 7 HSF)
Gigabyte GA-7VTXE KT266A Motherboard
2 x 256MB PC2100 Memory
Adaptec 19160
U160 SCSI Controller
2 x 10,000RPM 36GB Hard Drives
Sound Blaster Live!
5.1
Windows 2000 Pro (Service Pack 3)
ATI Radeon 8500LE 64MB DDR (250/250)
OEM
3D Marks: 8310 (Using Catalyst 6118 Drivers) Test
System #3:
Dual AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (Volcano 7 HSF's)
Tyan Tiger MPX
S2466-4M Motherboard
2 x 256MB DDR PC2100 Memory
Mylex 150 SCSI RAID Adapter
2 x 9.1GB IBM 7200RPM (SCSI RAID-0)
9.1GB Atlas II 10000RPM (SCSI)
20GB
7200RPM Fugitsu
40GB 7200RPM Seagate
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Windows
2000 (Service Pack 3)
Hercules 3D Prophet GeForce 3 Ti500 64MB
3D Marks:
7748 (Using 1.1.82 Omega Drivers) Test
System #4:
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ @ 1.61GHz (140FSB) (Volcano 7 HSF)
Gigabyte GA-7VRXP KT333 Motherboard
2 x 256MB DDR PC2700 Kingmax Memory
2 x 80GB Seagate 7200RPM (IDE RAID-0)
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Windows
XP Professional (Service Pack 1)
Hercules 3D Prophet GeForce 2 Ti 64MB - 3D
Marks: 5181 (Using 1.1.82 Omega Drivers)
ATi Radeon 8500LE 64MB DDR OEM -
3D Marks: 8546 (Using 6166 Catalyst Drivers)
Results:
All the following where achieved using the supplied drivers
(and only the Pentium 4 had a fresh installation of Windows).
System #1 Results:
12802 3D Marks
13330 3D Marks @ 2.64GHz
13630 3D Marks @ 2.71GHz
System #2 Results:
12160 3D Marks @ Performance Settings
~7782
3D Marks @ Quality Settings Here
is just a snapshot of one of the results:
System #3 Results:
~10341 3D Marks (System was / is having a bottleneck,
will keep testing) System
#4 Results:
11791 3D Marks @ Default Install Settings
12182 3D Marks
@ Performance Settings Here
is just a snapshot of one of the results:
 Conclusion:
Well my friends we have a dead set, hands down, winner right here, the ATI
Radeon 9700 Pro is certainly all that it was hyped up to be, and just you wait
until DirectX 9.0 is released later this year to take control of the full potential
of this card.
Unfortunately for those Linux enthusiasts there wont be
Linux drivers for a while... but hey, aren't we glad for VM Ware and Dual Booting
:) We did notice
a few problems here and there while testing, mainly some problems in games due
to Anti-Aliasing and the likes, but most of these were overcome with settings
and patchs. This is expected with a first driver release and should mostly be
fixed once updated and better drivers are released.
Score:
10 / 10 
Full
Reviews are available here:
Toms
Hardware
AnandTech
ZDNet UK Reviews
Motherboards.org
TweakTown
Digit Life
Product Information is available here:
ATi
Radeon 9700 Pro Home Page 
On a further note we can't wait to get our hands on a Gigabyte and Hercules
card for comparison.
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