Radeons Illuminate the Gaming World Again!
Written: Apr 28 '03 (Updated Sep 26 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Specs
Supports Direct x 9
128 mb ram
8x agp support
Cons: Not many games supporting directx9
requires 300watt power supply
The Bottom Line: There are better but this is still an awesome card at a low cost(I'm not crazy, im just comparing it to other card's prices)!
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| yoshi9143's Full Review: ATI RADEON 9500 PRO, (128 MB) AGP Video Card |
Update
I currently have played UT2004 with the highest settings and no problems! ATI is continuing to release drivers. They discontinued the card and released the 9600xt because the 9600XT is cheaper to make. The 9500pro does outperform it in many tests though. If you can find this card get your hands on it because it's basically an underclocked radeon 9700...that's why it was so expensive to make.
Why i bought this card
I was building a new computer and I wanted it to last a long time. Im also a major gamer so I thought why not this.
Specs, here are some specs for us geeks
System Requirements
RADEON™ 9500 PRO requires connection to your PC's internal power supply for operation. A 300-Watt power supply or greater is recommended to ensure normal system operation where a number of other internal devices are installed.
Intel® Pentium® 4/III/II/Celeron™, AMD® K6/Duron™/Athlon®/Athlon® XP or compatible with AGP 8X/4X/2X slot
128MB of system memory
DVD playback requires DVD drive
Graphics controller
RADEON™ 9500 PRO Visual Processing Unit (VPU)
275 MHz engine clock
Memory configuration
128MB of double data rate SDRAM
Operating system support
Windows® XP
Windows® 2000
Windows® Me
Display support
VGA connector for analog CRT
S-video or composite connector for TV/VCR
DVI-I connector for digital CRT or flat panel
Independent resolutions and refresh rates for any two connected displays
Features
Eight parallel rendering pipelines
128-bit DDR memory interface
AGP 8X support
SMARTSHADER™ 2.0
Supports Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 and the latest version of OpenGL®
SMOOTHVISION™ 2.0
2x/4x/6x full scene anti-aliasing modes
Adaptive algorithm with programmable sample patterns
2x/4x/8x/16x anisotropic filtering modes
VIDEOSHADER™
Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video
FULLSTREAM™video de-blocking technology
Noise removal filtering for captured video
Now that we got that out of the way
Why I chose this card over others
Price
This card is reasonably prices for its preformance and Direct x9 compabilities. Since it was especially designed for dirextx9 I chose it over the Ti4400/4600.
What is direct x 9?
Direct x 8 has been used in games like Unreal Tournment and Battlefield 1942. Those games have stunning graphics. Now lets pretend we step those graphics up a notch....now you've got direct x9. Directx9 has not shown its full potential but game developers are starting to switch to directx9. The Ti 4400/4600 have gotten better scores on 3dmark01 but thats because 3dmark01 uses directx8.1 techology. The benchmarking scores are slightly higher(by maybe a 100-1000 points) for direct x8.1. Direct x 8.1 is becoming obsolete so thats why I thought, "I shouldnt notice a huge difference for my direct x8 games but when directx9 games come out there will be a noticable difference." After this thought I picked it off the shelf. You will not notice a difference between the Ti4400/4600 and the radeon 9500pro in directx8 games, as for dirextx9...I havent seen a single Geforce 4 Ti card get past 2000 on 3dmark03(3dmark 03 measures direct x9 and 3dmark01 measures directx8 just incase you got confused)while this radeon got above 4000.
Instructions
I didnt pay much attention to the directions since well 1. Im a guy 2. Ive had previous experiences. The only question I had and that many people will is how does it get power? Sicne the agp slot doesn't supply enough power for this lil monster it requires a 4 pin power connecter that connects ro ur cdrom and hardrive(not floppy). Don't worry, you wont lose a power connecter since it has a pass-through method which gives u another one so you dont lose any. This requires atleats a 300watt power supply. the card fit into my agp 8x slot like it should.
note: Currently, there is a less than 1% difference between 8x and 4x agp
Drivers
Ati has supposedly been known for bad drivers, this is a thing of the past. I've used games like battlefield 1942: road to rome, Unreal tournement 2003, Medal of Honor ALlied Assualt, and no problems. The new Catalyst Drivers work perfectly and when i problem is noticed ATi has fixed them suprisingly fast. The cd the card comes with automatically slects your o/s and installs the drivers like a normal cd should, no big surprises.
Graphics
The only card that I can think of that will sue this card's power is Doom 3. The graphics are absoultly stunning. The graphics in game slook so much more releastic from a previous ati radoen 8500le. I didn't notice a difference in ordinary, normal computer work but gaming was O_O . If your thinking about switching this is the product to do so.
Overclocking
Note: This is not for the novice and if you dont know what overclocking is dont try it! It can ruin hardware in your computer, I take no responsibility for what you do.
Now that we got that outta the way, lets continue shall we?
The card is set to the default of 277(core)/270(ram). i overclocked this on stock cooling to 351/311 with few artifacts, you can see my 3dmark03 benchmarking here: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=623723 (note the 3dmark01 has a different scale, 01 measures directx8.1 while 03 measures directx9 so there is a major scale difference)
WIthout artifacts i got up to 338/304. I dont overclock this card currently since I see no need as no game uses its full potential.
WHo should and shouldnt buy it
Why you should
Video card will last to atleast 3 years
Intense Gamer
You have an equivilant to a Geforce 2 or less
You have a 4x enabled agp slot
A pentium 4 processor
Conclusion
This card will last you a loooong time so I reocmmend you buy it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
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Epinions.com ID:
yoshi9143
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Location: Fairfax,VA, USA
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 0 members
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