![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Thursday , March 06, 2003
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Radeon 9800 Pro Review
We investigate what improvements ATi has made over the Radeon 9700 Pro and make a very detailed analysis of performance using both gaming and synthetic tests. If you are pondering the purchase of a graphics accelerator soon, we suggest you to read this review first before making your next buying decision.
SMOOTHVISION 2.1
Smoothvision has also been improved from the 9700 Pro. SMOOTHVISION as you know handles the Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic features of the 9700 Pro. ATi has optimized the memory controller for even greater performance of AA and AF at higher resolutions. They now have what they call 2nd Generation 6XAA/16XAF.
“SMOOTHVISION 2.1 builds on version 2.0 by incorporating memory controller optimizations that improve rendering performance when anti-aliasing is enabled. The portion of the memory controller that arbitrates read and write requests in the RADEON 9800 PRO was tuned to provide higher efficiency under the heaviest bandwidth loads. The performance benefits of these improvements are most obvious when using the 4x and 6x anti-aliasing modes at resolutions greater than 1024x768. “
HyperZ III+
HyperZ III, ATi’s Z compression scheme has also been improved for the 9800 Pro. ATi has enhanced the Z-cache so that it is more flexible and better optimized to work with stencil buffer data. This allows for better stencil shadow volume performance. Doom 3 anyone?
The stencil buffer co-exists with the Z-buffer and behaves similarly, in that an application can set a pixel’s stencil value and compare it against the value stored in the stencil buffer to determine if the pixel gets rendered or not. The main difference is that the Z values in the Z-buffer represent the “depth” of a pixel, while the values in the stencil buffer can represent anything the programmer wants them to.
One of the most common uses for the stencil buffer is for rendering real-time shadow volumes. In this case, the application calculates which parts of the image fall in the shadow of other objects, and stores these shadowed areas in the stencil buffer. The graphics processor can then compare each pixel it renders with the stencil buffer values to determine if it falls within the shadow of any objects that have already been rendered. As long as all objects are rendered in the correct order, this technique makes it possible to generate accurate shadows for any moving object and/or light sources in a scene.
This process requires a lot of extra computation, so it has been used sparingly (if at all) in most existing games. Future game engines, however, such as the Doom 3 engine, are expected to use it heavily to create very realistic environments. The enhanced Z-cache feature of HYPER Z III+ increases the performance of stencil shadow volumes and will help to deliver a superior experience when playing the next generation of 3D games. “
That plus it also still maintains its great 24:1 z-compression and 6:1 color compression.
Higher Clock Speeds
And finally they have improved timing and signal integrity on the R350 so that core and memory clock speeds could be improved which allows significantly higher clock speeds without the need for large, noisy cooling solutions.
The Lineup
Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB - R350, DX9++, .15u, 256MB DDR2, Shipping in April
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB - R350, DX9++, .15u, 128MB DDR, Shipping this Month, SRP $399 380Mhz Core 680Mhz Memory.
Radeon 9800 128MB - R350, DX9++, .15u, 128MB DDR, Lower Clock Speeds, SRP $349
Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB - RV350, .13u, DX9++, 4 Pixel Pipelines, 2 Vertex Engines, HyperZ III, 400Mhz core and 600Mhz memory, $169 - 199 SRP, April.
Radeon 9600 - 64-128MB Configurations, RV350, .13u, DX9++, 4 Pixel Pipelines, 2 Vertex Engines, HyperZ III, 325Mhz core and 400Mhz memory, $149 - 169 ESP, April.
Radeon 9200 - 64-128MB configurations, RV280, DX8.1, 4 Pixel Pipes, AGP8X, SMARTSHADER, SMOOTHVISION, HyperZ II, FULLSTREAM, $79-$129 ESP, available in April.
Radeon 9200 Pro 128MB - DX8.1, 4 Pixel Pipes, AGP8X, SMARTSHADER, SMOOTHVISION, HyperZ II, FULLSTREAM, $129-$149 ESP, clock speeds confirmed prior to availability, available in April.
9800 Pro
Today we have the Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB to review for you.
In the first picture the 9800 Pro is on top and the 9700 Pro is below it. Immediately you can see the 9800 Pro is slightly longer. Still as you can see in the third picture the GeForceFX is still a lot longer then the 9800 Pro.
The 9800 Pro does require external power to operate correctly and this time ATi has chosen a molex connection.
These are the three heatsinks that are required for proper operation of the 9800 Pro. As you can see the main HSF is all that is needed on the VPU to keep this beast cool. In fact, the card is lighter, mostly due to the lighter HSF on the 9800 Pro.