GeCube All-In-Wonder 9600XT 128M/TV/FM
While the formal name of the product is ALL-IN-WONDER 9600XT 128M / TV / FM, I'll be buggered if I'm typing that out every time. 9600XT AIW from now on.Being a Radeon 9600XT product, its a mid-range board. Here's the base spec and those of its nearest rivals.
| GeCube Radeon 9600XT AIW | GeForce FX 5900XT | GeForce FX 5700 Ultra | |
| Core Clock | 525MHz (500MHz standard) | 390MHz | 475MHz |
| Memory Clock | 650MHz DDR (600MHz standard) | 700MHz DDR | 900MHz DDR |
| Process | 0.13u TSMC (75M transistors) | 0.13u TSMC (80M transistors) | 0.13u IBM (80M transistors) |
| Memory Bus Width | 128-bit | 256-bit | 128-bit |
| GPU | RV360 | NV35 | NV36 |
| Pixel performance | 2100Mpixels/sec | 1560Mpixels/sec | 1900Mpixels/sec |
| Texturing performance | 2100Mtexels/sec | 3120Mtexels/sec | 1900Mtexels/sec |
| Memory bandwidth | 10.4GB/sec | 22.4GB/sec | 14.4GB/sec |
| Target cost | £150 | £150 | £130 |
| Traditional render setup | 4x1 | 4x2 | 4x1 |
One of the 9600XT's biggest criticisms was directed at its memory frequency. ATI specify 600MHz DDR memory for the 9600XT, the same memory frequency they specify for the card the XT replaces, the PRO. With 100MHz more core clock than the PRO, everyone expected XT to get more memory frequency too, especially with NVIDIA's 5700 Ultra's bandwidth advantage.
The static memory frequency led a few AIB partners to deviate from ATI's spec and give customers what they were asking for, memory wise.
Powercolor's 9600XT BRAVO is one such deviant, offering 675MHz DDR memory. Looking at the spec table above, GeCube do the same thing with their AIW. 650MHz DDR is an 8.33% increase in frequency and theoretical bandwidth.
The also change core frequency to 525MHz, up from 500, a 5% increase. We'll see how that affects overall performance in future pages. On to the board itself.
