Thoughts
ABIT's ATI Radeon 9600 XT 256MB card can be found in UK retailers' catalogues for around £115. On the face of it, that represents reasonable value. Informed readers will know that 256MB of onboard memory does little to increase the performance of midrange cards. More importantly, however, the knock-on effect of ATI and NVIDIA's high-end cards has been the lowering mid-to-top-end card prices. Specifically, one can now purchase a Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB for just £20 more than the ABIT's asking price. That card competes in a different league and benchmarks a few percent shy of a 9800 XT's performance. Just that fact makes ABIT's card look unattractive.In summary, ABIT's done a decent enough job with its 9600 XT card. It's quiet, efficient, benchmarks well for a midrange card and carries basic VIV0 functionality. Compared to other cards running similar GPUs, and I'm thinking of other 9600 XTs, FX5700 / Ultras, it's not a bad buy. What condemns it graphics card limbo is the significant increase in performance users can get by spending just a few pounds more. All in all, a good 9600 XT that's a victim of aggressive R350 pricing.
