System setup and notes
Hardware
- PowerColor Radeon 9600XT Bravo 128MB, AGP8X, 500/675
- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra reference, 128MB, AGP8X, 475/906
- Gainward GeForce FX 5700 Ultra Golden Sample, 128MB, AGP8X, 500/1000
- AMD Athlon 64 3400+, 2200MHz
- EPoX 8HDA3+ S754 VIA K8T800 Motherboard (12/12 BIOS)
- Corsair XMS3500C2, 2 x 256MB, 2-2-2-6 @ DDR400
- Samcheer 420w PSU
- AMD reference cooler
- IBM 120GXP 40GB Hard Drive
- Dell P991 19" flat-faced CRT monitor
Software
- Windows XP Professional w/SP1
- ATI CATALYST 4.1
- NVIDIA ForceWare 53.03
- VIA Hyperion v4.51 chipset drivers
- DirectX 9.0b Runtime
- FRAPS 2.0.0
- 3DMark 2001SE v330
- 3DMark03 v340
- AquaMark3
- Splinter Cell (Beyond3D Demo)
- Unreal Tournament 2003 Retail (patched up to 2225 - HEXUS custom benchmark)
- X2: The Threat
- Call Of Duty - HEXUS Custom Benchmark
- RTCW: Enemy Territory - HEXUS Custom Benchmark
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (patched to v1.1) - HEXUS Custom Benchmark with FRAPS
Notes
A couple of NVIDIA cards make up the competition. The FX 5700 Ultra, in terms of performance, is positioned a notch or two above the Radeon 9600XT. That said, the 9600XT is ATI's premier card featuring an 128-bit wide memory interface. We fully expect it to be slightly slower than the faster-clocked FX 5700 Ultra and Gainward's souped-up version. but we expect the PowerColor to do well in DX9 benchmarks.
2D quality
In a word, excellent, both through HD15 and especially DVI.
Noise
The Bravo 9600XT is a quiet card. Unfortunately it doesn't feature a variable-speed fan function yet. We hope the addition of the LM63 monitoring chip will bring about this feature. No real aural complaints, though.
Benchmarks
Benchmarks were conducted three times. The highest and lowest results were discarded. Test were carried out at a refresh rate of 75Hz. Vertical sync' was disabled. Drivers were set to quality (without AA and AF until needed).
