CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 06/02/2003
- Updated on: 11/06/2009
Hard-core game enthusiasts will tell you that no graphics engine is too fast. Luckily for gamers, the two biggest names in GPU (graphics processing unit) production, ATI and Nvidia, are embroiled in a fast-paced game of one-upmanship to produce the speediest 3D graphics engine for gamers. ATI's most recent sortie in this high-end battle is the Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB, an update to the recently released 128MB version of the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.
Besides having twice the memory, the 9800 Pro 256MB is notable for its use of DDR2 SDRAM--the 128MB version uses the more traditional DDR1 SDRAM. The 256MB card's memory runs at the slightly faster clip of 350MHz, which is 10MHz faster than the 128MB version. The extra memory allows the card to render larger-sized textures in the card's onboard memory at very high resolutions, such as 2,048x1,536, with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering enabled. The 9800 Pro 256MB is targeted squarely at hard-core gamers who like to push the envelope with screen resolution and advanced features.
Depending on the application, you may not necessarily see a significant performance difference between the 128MB and 256MB versions of the cards. We saw modest gains on our 3DMark03 tests, but we could chalk this up to optimizations implemented in the driver, since we tested the 128MB version two months earlier. On our Unreal Tournament 2003 tests, we saw the identical performance on both versions of the card.
The 9800 Pro 256MB's biggest competition at the moment is the Nvidia GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. We compared the 9800 256MB with a reference design of Nvidia's 5900 Ultra card (both cards were tested using beta drivers).
In our original round of testing, the 9800 Pro 256MB's performance lagged significantly behind that of the 5900 Ultra on our 3DMark03 (Build 320) tests. We discovered during testing, however, that there were issues with the display drivers that both ATI and Nvidia supplied us, which artificially inflated the 3DMark03 scores. Futuremark provided us with an updated version of 3DMark03--Build 330--that disabled these benchmark-specific optimizations. With the new version of 3DMark03, depending on the resolution and the enabled features, the 9800 Pro 256MB's 3DMark03 score dropped between 2 and 4 percent. Meanwhile, the 5900 Ultra's 3DMark03 score dipped by as much as 22 percent--the optimizations in Nvidia's drivers were obviously much more severe than ATI's.
Using the updated version of the benchmark, the 5900 Ultra was no longer the performance leader. In fact, at 1,024x768 and 1,600x1,200 with neither antialiasing (AA) nor anisotropic filtering (AF) enabled, the 9800 Pro bests the 5900 Ultra by 14 and 12 percent, respectively. With AA and AF enabled, however, the performance of both cards was nearly indistinguishable. However, we then discovered yet another 3DMark03-specific optimization in the Nvidia driver. Once we disabled the newly discovered Nvdia optimization, the 5900 Ultra's anisotropic filtering performance dropped about 8 percent below that of the 9800 Pro 256MB.
Our Unreal Tournament 2003 Botmatch-Antalus tests show both cards at roughly the same performance level, with each gaining a slight edge in performance depending on the individual test. However, the more GPU-intensive Flyby-Antalus tests have the 5900 Ultra torching the 9800 Pro 256MB by as much as 26 percent at 1,600x1,200, and by 9 percent with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering both set to 4X.
The Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell tests tell a different story. Using the medium-quality settings, the performance of both cards is essentially identical. Cranked up to the high-quality settings, however, the 9800 Pro 256MB gains an 8 percent advantage over the 5900 Ultra at both 1,024x768 and 1,600x1,200.
In this current struggle to be king of the hill, no single GPU stands dominantly on top. There's a lot of pushing and shoving between the Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB and the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, but there's no disputing that these two cards represent the fastest 3D gaming performance available today for desktop systems.
The 9800 Pro 256MB features VGA, DVI, and S-Video connectors, and the card doesn't come with any software other than an installation guide and drivers. ATI sells the 9800 Pro 256MB for $499, with the 128MB version of the card dropping down to $399. Expect to see other vendors, such as VisionTek, also selling 256MB cards using the Radeon 9800 Pro GPU.
Futuremark's 3DMark03 (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Unreal Tournament 2003 test: Flyby-Antalus (in fps) (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell test (in fps) (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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