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ATI RADEON 9800 Review August 25, 2003 Brandon Bell |
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Summary: Would you like to purchase a RADEON 9800 PRO, but don't have $350-$450 to shell out for a new card? This is where the RADEON 9800 comes in! It offers all the features of the 9800 PRO, but sells for $100 less: these cards can be found for less than $250 online right now! In today's review, we take ATI's own RADEON 9800 card out for a spin as we compare it against the 9700 PRO, 9800 PRO family, and the GeForce FX 5900/5900 Ultra. We've also thrown in overclocked 9700 PRO versus overclocked RADEON 9800 numbers for your overclockers out there!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 14 ) |
Whether you’re hunting for a slick new progressive scan DVD player, or the perfect radar detector to go with the new sports car you just purchased, nothing beats the satisfaction of finding a good deal. Bargain hunters scour the Internet looking for the perfect product. In a perfect world it’s that top-of-the-line model with all the bells and whistles; price is no object. But more often than not, price is a concern, especially when you’re dealing with computer hardware: the latest and greatest product is usually outdated in a matter of months. Fortunately you can often find an alternative to the high-end that offers most of the performance and features, but at a much lower cost.
In the 3D graphics world, NVIDIA’s GeForce4 Ti 4200 GPU was this product last year. The GeForce4 Ti 4200 was built on the same core as NVIDIA’s flagship GeForce4 Ti 4600, so its feature set was identical. NVIDIA clocked it more conservatively however, 250MHz core/500MHz memory in the case of the 64MB model, while the 128MB card shipped with its core at 250MHz and the memory at 444MHz. In comparison, GeForce4 Ti 4600’s core operates at 300MHz and is equipped with 128MB of DDR memory running at 650MHz.
Ultimately, the GeForce4 Ti 4200 proved so popular it was the first card in the GeForce4 Titanium lineup to receive an updated AGP 8X interface. This update didn’t do much to improve performance, but NVIDIA’s board partners took advantage anyway, releasing a slew of second and third generation cards that held over well into 2003, a year after the first GeForce4 Ti products were announced.
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ATI has been busy trying to concoct a hot product of its own. The RADEON 9500 family was their initial counter. The RADEON 9500 PRO was well received by online press for its blazing 8-pixel pipeline architecture. Meanwhile, consumers were raving over the RADEON 9500, which could often be modified to function like a RADEON 9700/9700 PRO! Both of these cards were essentially based on ATI’s 110 million transistor R300 core (nearly twice as many transistors as the GeForce4 Ti family), which was expensive to produce, and therefore utilized expensive PCBs that required an external power source to operate. But with the $180 asking price for the RADEON 9500 and $200 (with $20 rebate) MSRP of the RADEON 9500 PRO, these cards sold for narrow premiums. ATI needed something that was cheaper to produce to serve this market more efficiently. ATI’s answer to this problem was the RADEON 9600 series.
The RADEON 9600 PRO was cheaper to produce, thanks to its 4-pixel pipeline RV350 core, but didn’t have as much horsepower as some gamers wanted. In many cases it was outperformed by the card it was intended to replace! For consumers looking for a little more performance, ATI quietly released its RADEON 9800 VPU about two months ago. This card is based on the same chip as the RADEON 9800 PRO, but it costs significantly less -- MSRP is $300 ($100 less than the 9800 PRO) but online prices for these cards can often be found for under $250. As a result, these cards have been selling like hotcakes!
SIDEBAR: ATI RADEON 9800 Product Webpage
| Specifications | Page:: ( 2 / 14 ) |
R350 core
Like the GeForce4 Ti 4200 that was so popular a year ago, the RADEON 9800 is built on the exact same core as ATI’s flagship RADEON 9800 PRO. The only difference is clock speeds.
The RADEON 9800 PRO boasts a 380MHz core clock frequency, while the 9800 is limited to 325MHz. This alteration nets the RADEON 9800 PRO an additional 14% in fill rate. The memory subsystem of the RADEON 9800 is also pared down; the RADEON 9800’s memory runs at 290MHz (580MHz effective) while the RADEON 9800 PRO is dialed up to 340MHz (680MHz effective). As a result of this change, the RADEON 9800’s peak memory bandwidth trails RADEON 9800 PRO by 3.2GB/sec.
How does it compare to the 9700 PRO?
In comparison to ATI’s previous high-end product, the RADEON 9700 PRO, the RADEON 9800 is pretty competitive. Since both graphics cores function at the same clock frequency, fill rate is the same 2.6 Gigatexels/second on both cards. The one difference lies in memory: the RADEON 9700 PRO ships with 310MHz DDR memory (620MHz effective) so it offers up to 19.8GB/sec of memory bandwidth to the graphics core versus 18.6GB/sec in RADEON 9800. This gives the RADEON 9700 PRO a slight performance advantage in most benchmarks when both cards are operating at stock speeds.
However, the RADEON 9700 PRO takes a backseat to RADEON 9800 in features. The R350 core in RADEON 9800 has been reworked to run at higher clock frequencies than RADEON 9700 PRO. This modification allowed ATI to clock the RADEON 9800 PRO at 380MHz. As a result, its graphics core has more overclocking potential than RADEON 9700 PRO, but more on this later.
ATI has added a new F-buffer to the RADEON 9800 core. The F-buffer stores pixels that require multiple passes rather than writing them out to the frame buffer each time. This conserves memory bandwidth and saves rendering time as the pixels that require multiple passes don’t have to be sent multiple times. Ultimately, this allows the developer to write longer shader code for more complex effects without having to worry about the number of shader instructions the hardware supports. In fact, the RADEON 9800 supports fragment shader programs of unlimited length (although it remains to be seen how quickly some of the more complex shader routines can be rendered).
Besides the enhanced shading prowess, the RADEON 9800 has an enhanced Z-cache that has been optimized to perform better with stencil buffers. This addition is meant to improve the RADEON 9800’s performance in games that use shadows extensively. DOOM 3 is the most well known example.
The final improvement ATI has implemented is the RADEON 9800’s enhanced memory controller. ATI has tuned the controller for better efficiency in bandwidth intensive situations like 4x and 6x AA modes.
Overall, these changes make the RADEON 9800 a better long-term purchase than the RADEON 9700 PRO. The fact that RADEON 9800 cards can be found for $30-$50 less than the RADEON 9700 PRO should make the decision even easier for enthusiasts.
SIDEBAR: The RADEON 9800 card was slightly shorter than the RADEON 9800 PRO. It looks like ATI has implemented a new PCB design for its newer boards.
| Board analysis | Page:: ( 3 / 14 ) |
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Physically, the RADEON 9800 looks virtually identical to the RADEON 9800 PRO. As you can see in the images, the red PCB ATI cards have become known for is present. In fact, the RADEON 9800 also borrows the RADEON 9800 PRO’s heatsink/fan unit. This heatsink has longer fins in comparison to the 9700 PRO’s heatsink for increased surface area. The fins are also more numerous than they were on the 9700 PRO’s cooler. This helps the core operate at higher clock speeds than the 9700 PRO without overheating.
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To help keep the temperature of the board itself in check, ATI integrates heatsinks on the voltage regulator modules. If you recall the RADEON 9700 PRO board design, ATI relied on a metal plate to accomplish this task. Even at stock clock speeds, the plate would get incredibly hot to the touch, causing the entire board to get hot. As a result, adequate case ventilation was a necessity. The heatsinks employed on the RADEON 9800 are a much better solution, even after extended operation they barely get warm. When combined with the improved cooler on the graphics core, this combination does a much more effective job of combating heat, despite the higher clock speed of the board’s components.
A conventional Molex power connector keeps the card fed with juice. The RADEON 9500 and 9700 families utilized a floppy power connector for this purpose. The floppy connector was more prone to being damaged, so this is definitely another good move by ATI.
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Infineon RAM
Other than the core itself, the other key ingredient to the RADEON 9800 is its memory. In the past RADEON 9800 cards have shipped with 2.8ns, 3.0ns, and 3.3ns memory from manufacturers Samsung and Infineon. In fact, early RADEON 9800 cards shipped with the same 2.8ns Samsung memory modules as RADEON 9800 PRO cards! This is important for overclocking, as the 2.8ns modules are rated for operation at up to 350MHz, 60MHz over the RADEON 9800’s stock memory clock frequency. Unfortunately supply of these cards has dried up, as most users are reporting that their cards were furnished with 3.0ns or 3.3ns memory modules.
Our card shipped with 3.0ns modules manufactured by Infineon. This means that they’re good for 333MHz on paper, so we should have a little bit of room to overclock with. End user reports suggest that Samsung’s modules are best at this task however.
Other than the card itself, the rest of the RADEON 9800 packaging is pretty spartan. You’ve got the obligatory DVI-to-VGA adapter, S-Video and Composite cables, an S-Video-to-Composite adapter, and power adapter. That’s it. You won’t find a game bundle or even a demo CD here.
SIDEBAR: The Samsung memory modules are often found on RADEON 9800 cards from Sapphire.
| Test Systems | Page:: ( 4 / 14 ) |
System Setup
Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz
ASUS P4C800 Deluxe
512MB OCZ EL PC3200 (DDR400) SDRAM
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO – 256MB
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO – 128MB
ATI RADEON 9800 – 128MB
ATI RADEON 9700 PRO
Driver version CATALYST 3.6
eVGA e-GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
Leadtek A350 Ultra TDH MyVIVO
MSI GeForce FX5900-TD128
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600
Driver version Detonator 45.23
30GB IBM Deskstar DTLA 307030 ATA/100 Hard Drive
Windows XP Professional
DirectX 9.0
Benchmarks
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season (Bristol custom demo)
Quake III: Arena version 1.32 (fscrusher demo)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (T2 custom demo)
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (The Black Death track)
Splinter Cell (FS custom demo)
SIDEBAR: Noise levels between the RADEON 9700 PRO and RADEON 9800 are similarly quiet.
| NASCAR Racing 2003 Season | Page:: ( 5 / 14 ) |
Nascar 2003
Test Notes
The RADEON cards tend to prefer D3D mode in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. Sometimes textures won’t be displayed properly in OpenGL mode, if at all. The end result is a sea of white on the racetrack and sometimes opposing cars. Fortunately, performance is roughly the same in either mode, so you don’t lose anything by relying on D3D. We’ve also found that RADEON cards perform better overall on the nForce2 platform than 875P in this title.
SIDEBAR: ATI first implemented its red PCBs on the RADEON 9700 PRO.
| IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles | Page:: ( 6 / 14 ) |
IL-2 Sturmovik: FB
Test Notes
The CATALYST 3.6 driver introduces a new problem to IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, adjusting to higher resolutions often results in the bulk of the display being taken over by the desktop. It’s almost as if you’re playing in a window, but without the full screen being visible. It’s a very annoying bug that requires you to select 1600x1200 as your starting resolution upon installation in order to be resolved. You also have to remember to quit at 1600x1200 if you wish to load that resolution at a later point during your next gaming session.
SIDEBAR: ATI recently unveiled a new TV tuner card, the TV WONDER PRO.
| Quake III | Page:: ( 7 / 14 ) |
Quake III - OpenGL
SIDEBAR: ATI also recently announced that it secured the graphics design win for future Xbox products.
| Unreal Tournament 2003 | Page:: ( 8 / 14 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2003 – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: The dye in the PCB of our RADEON 9800 card was slightly brighter than other ATI cards we’ve tested recently.
| Splinter Cell | Page:: ( 9 / 14 ) |
Splinter Cell – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: Last year, ATI left board production of non-PRO cards to its board partners. Obviously ATI decided to reverse direction on that decision.
| IL2:FB 4xAA | Page:: ( 10 / 14 ) |
IL-2 Sturmovik: FB
SIDEBAR: The real life IL-2 Sturmovik was built like a tank, which was necessary for the close air support missions it often flew.
| UT 2003 4xAA 8xAF | Page:: ( 11 / 14 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2003
SIDEBAR: The R350 core is built on TSMC’s 0.15-micron manufacturing process.
| Overclocking | Page:: ( 12 / 14 ) |
Quake 3
Unreal Tournament 2003
Test Notes
We were disappointed to see that we couldn’t even hit the 333MHz our 3.0ns Infineon modules were rated for. Online reports are pretty similar to what we experienced with this memory. The core clock frequency of 388MHz is slightly above the RADEON 9800 PRO stock frequency, so fill rate is in line with ATI’s flagship product.
SIDEBAR: We used Powerstrip 3.45 to overclock the RADEON 9800 card.
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 13 / 14 ) |
Pros
Performance: In our performance testing, the RADEON 9800 finishes either ahead of, or behind the RADEON 9700 PRO by a hair, with the result varying depending on the application and resolution tested. Obviously with the card’s lower memory bandwidth it does fall behind at high resolutions and under the additional strain of anti-aliasing/anisotropic filtering but the difference is slim. When you compare the performance of the RADEON 9800 to the other cards in its general street price range (GeForce FX 5600 Ultra and the 256MB GeForce FX 5600) the RADEON 9800 comes out ahead.
Basically, the RADEON 9800 may not be the fastest card in ATI’s stable, but it establishes a new level of performance for its sector of the market.
UPDATE: It has come to our attention that street prices for the GeForce FX 5900 128MB have been slashed this week, MSRP is now $299, the same price as RADEON 9800 128MB. This puts the two cards in direct competition with each other and makes the statement above outdated.
R350 core: The R350 core in the RADEON 9800 builds upon the foundation first established with RADEON 9700 PRO. You’ve got the eight pixel pipeline architecture with full support of floating point data types and 128-bit color, and a 256-bit memory interface that really flexes its muscle over narrower interfaces at high resolutions with AA/AF. ATI has updated R350 for operation at higher clock speeds without excessive heat/noise, a new F-buffer that brings support for an unlimited number of pixel shader instructions, enhanced Z-cache for better performance in scenes with excessive shadows, and an optimized memory controller for better performance under higher AA modes.
New board design: We like the changes ATI has implemented in the RADEON 9800/RADEON 9800 PRO board design. The heatsink/fan unit cooling the graphics core is highly effective, especially on the RADEON 9800, which operates at lower clock speeds than its bigger brother. The passive cooling on the VRM circuitry is another positive addition that was badly needed on RADEON 9700 PRO. Finally, the Molex power connector is more durable than the floppy connector found on previous ATI cards.
Because of these modifications, the RADEON 9800/9800 PRO can stand up to everyday wear and tear better than the RADEON 9700 family, ensuring better reliability in the long run. ATI has also resolved the nagging compatibility issues we reported on between the RADEON 9700/SiS 648 combination.
Cons
Price: While the RADEON 9800 represents the best value in its class, $250-$300 is still a lot to pay for a graphics card. For consumers that want to spend $150 or less, the RADEON 9600 PRO is a solid alternative. You can see how it compares to the RADEON 9800 in our performance preview article from earlier this month.
The “reference board” factor: While you’re ensured to get the Built By ATI quality and support by going with an ATI graphics card, there’s nothing striking about the RADEON 9800’s board design or accessories. You’ve got no software bundle or exotic cooling, so if those are the things that you look for, you may be a little disappointed by the Built By ATI RADEON 9800.
SIDEBAR: ATI’s board partners also offer the RADEON 9800 SE, but don’t be tempted by this product. It only features four pixel pipelines, half the number in RADEON 9800/9800 PRO.
| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 14 / 14 ) |
FiringSquad says:
ATI’s RADEON 9800 card was conceived for the gamer who wants all of the technology and benefits of ATI’s flagship product, the RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB and 256MB, but without having to pay a king’s ransom to get it.
At $300 MSRP, the RADEON 9800 is a bit on the high side, but fortunately street prices are hovering in the sub-$250 price range. At this price point, there’s really nothing that can touch the RADEON 9800. The RADEON 9700 is an option, but remember that it’s based on older technology and runs slower than the RADEON 9800. The RADEON 9700 PRO is ever so slightly faster than the RADEON 9800, but the difference is so small you’d have to run benchmarks to see it. In fact, in IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles and NASCAR Racing 2003 Season the margin was less than one frame per second, so racing and flight simmers won’t even see a difference.
NVIDIA really doesn’t have anything to compete with RADEON 9800. GeForce FX 5600 Ultra is priced a little lower, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to touching the performance of the RADEON 9800 due to its narrower 128-bit memory interface and four-pixel pipeline architecture. Meanwhile, the RADEON 9800’s intended competitor, GeForce FX 5900 Value, is still a paper product, NVIDIA hasn’t even announced the final specs for this card. As a result, NVIDIA is essentially conceding this market to ATI.
UPDATE: It has come to our attention that street prices for the GeForce FX 5900 128MB have been slashed this week, MSRP is now $299, the same price as RADEON 9800 128MB. This puts the two cards in direct competition with each other and makes the statement above outdated.
ATI’s RADEON 9800 epitomizes what our Bull’s Eye Award is all about. It delivers compelling features and performance, but does so without emptying your bank account. For the gamer who wants to enjoy upcoming titles like Half-Life 2 in all its 2.0 pixel and vertex shading glory, it’s a viable solution.
In short, the RADEON 9800 is currently one of the hottest bargains around. This makes it one tempting choice for you deal hunters out there! Kudos to ATI for redefining the DX9 price/performance ratio in the upper segment of the graphics market. If we recall correctly, didn’t they do the same thing around this time last year?
SIDEBAR: Was the RADEON 9800 made for you, or do you want a little more horsepower. Chat about this review with others in the news comments!