Layout and appearance
Radeon 9600 XTs are characterised by minimal PCB space, a lack of auxillary power, and quiet fan(s)
That's in evidence here. ABIT sticks by its elliptical-shaped alumunium cooler. The relative sizes of the DVI and VGA connections show just how small the card is. In the budget market, which we can call the sub-£100 range, there's nothing to be gained by using superfluous cooling or, for that matter, RAMsinks. Apart from the ABIT insignia on the top-right of the heatsink, this card could be from any one of several Add-In Board Partners (AIBs).
Taking a closer look at the RAM shows Hynix's handywork. A total of 8 256MBit chips rated at 3.3ns (600MHz) puts the R9600XT-VIO firmly in line with other 9600 XT cards' memory speed. As mentioned, in a sector that focussers on value above all else, there's little need to add in additional RAM heatsinks. Their value in overclocking is open to question too.
Nothing unexpected here. DVI, S-Video and VGA are commonplace on all modern cards. What will separate this R9600 XT derivative from the others can be found on the flipside.
Four RAM chips here and a mirrored four on the other side add up to 256MB of onboard memory. The overiding question with any mid-level card sporting 256MB of RAM, is whether the card can make full use of the buffer. Our research has shown that one needs an eight-pipe design to fully benefit from extra memory.
The main differentiating factor between 'XTs is in the use of ATI's venerable Rage Theater ASIC that provides basic Video-In/Video-Out (VIVO) use. It can process incoming video at up to 800x600 and export out feeds at 1024x768. One shouldn't forget that it's a cutdown version of the one found on All-In-Wonder cards (RT200), for instance. Still, even this ASIC beats out TV-Out-only cards. All in all, ABIT's R9600-VIO is exactly what you'd expect a retail 9600 XT to look like; a basic, no-frills approach that's a proven design.
