In the history of computer hardware, there are many models of equipment that have become a real breakthrough for their time, providing players with excellent performance at a very affordable price. Such, for example, was the Radeon 9600 (especially in the "Pro" series).
The first to draw attention to the advantages of the new video card were foreign gamers and computer editions, which not only burst with enthusiastic applause, but also cited numerous reviews as confirmation of their words. It turned out from them that this model (like almost all the company's products) lends itself well to overclocking, which further improves the performance of the new video card. However, we will not follow their example. From our article you will learn what exactly the Radeon 9600 is good for and why the players in those days loved it so much.
Brief technical information
Appearance was quite common for those times. The video card is relatively compact, depending on the manufacturer, it could be equipped with various models of turbines and cooling radiators. As a rule, the main printed circuit board was made on the basis of red PCB.
By today's standards, the performance of this “antique” looks ridiculous, but then the 400 MHz frequencies of the main chip looked pretty solid, and even the memory operating at a frequency of 600 MHz was an example of response speed. Naturally, many gamers immediately rushed to acquire such a promising new product. The price was especially attractive to everyone: as always, the Reds did not become greedy and sold the video card at an affordable price. It is not surprising that in 2005 the Radeon 9600 was one of the most popular video cards that could be found both in the foreign and domestic markets.
Major changes
It should be noted that the above characteristics are valid for the modification "Pro". For ordinary models, these indicators were noticeably more modest: the processor worked at a frequency of 325 MHz, and the memory barely reached 400 MHz. In any case (when compared with the predecessors), the dimensions of the chip itself have significantly decreased. It has dimensions of only 9.5x9.5 mm. Thus, its total area is approximately 100 square meters. mm In any case, even a layman can see the differences from previous models.
This made it possible to significantly reduce the size of the radiator and not “be smart” with the design of the cooling system, which in this case is represented by a simple fan in a plastic casing. True, such savings are far from always good: if you decide to overclock, the stock cooling system will probably have to look for an adequate replacement. In conditions when the models of this series have not been produced long ago, this task may become far from the easiest.
Connector specifications
Continuing to discuss the Radeon 9600 graphics card, one cannot help but mention the curious nuance regarding the performance of the AGP connector throughout this series. More precisely, it did not have a slot for placement in the slot, and therefore many users were faced with the inability to install the card on completely outdated motherboards. Thus, the manufacturer forgot to mention that the equipment had to have 1.5-volt AGP 4x and AGP 8x slots, since otherwise it would have been impossible to play anything.
The answer of competitors
To make it clearer, what kind of disappointment did gamers experience then ... The fact is that the GeForce FX 5600, which was also available at the same time, had a completely universal connector, which made it possible to install the card in both a 1.5-volt and a 3-volt slot. However, we emphasize once again that only those users who had the most outdated archaic "motherboards" experienced such problems. In principle, manufacturers are in no hurry to listen to the needs of this category of “electorate”. Finally, the Radeon 9600 256Mb performed very well in the field of coding and professional video editing, and therefore its advantages more than outweighed the not so significant drawbacks.
By the way, without departing from the topic of the article. Let's see how ATI gave an adequate answer regarding Nvidia, which traditionally are their main (and only) rivals. If you look at the “paper” characteristics, then you won’t be able to identify the leader. So which video card had real advantages over its rivals?
"Green" or "red"?
We will not give all the results of long-standing reviews. It is better to restrict ourselves to simple specific information. Of course, you are unlikely to use this video card now, since its performance is extremely frivolous by today's standards, but some facts about ATI are good to know today.
Just note that in those days the overall picture was quite heterogeneous and contradictory. It is for this reason that many players have long asked the price and wondered, unable to make the really right choice. The fact is that in synthetic tests, the ATI products clearly belonged to the championship, and the gap was quite significant, it was impossible not to take it into account at all. However, everything was not so simple, since practice, as always, still brought its own corrections.
The fact is that in games and video coding there was practically no real performance gap. Although, if we talk about the ATI Radeon 9600 series in the "Pro" version, the tangible gain was still preserved. These video cards not only felt great in full screen mode, but also boasted normal support for anisotropic filtering. This characteristic now seems to us for granted, but at that time it was really great! Until 2005-2006, the owners of these cards did not suffer from a lack of performance in principle.
Benefits of Ultra and Pro Versions
Once again, we note that all of the above applies only to the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. In this series, bells and whistles like FSAA and AF were added. They allowed you to see all the advantages of the new at that time DX9. For example, the owners of these video cards could appreciate the truly “living” faces of the characters in the games, and not their plasticine and extremely unnatural similarities. In heavy modes, models with the prefix "Ultra" and "Pro" provided an advantage in performance in the region of 20-30%, which is not so little.
Differences from version 9500
You should not assume that the Radeon 9600, the characteristics of which we provide on the pages of the article, was really a breakthrough novelty. The owners of the overclocked 9500 could not buy it at all, as they certainly would not have felt the special return on the purchase. The thing is that the 9600 has halved the number of pixel containers ... But it doubled the core frequency, significantly increased memory bandwidth, and also involved a chic overclocking potential.
Overclocking potential of the new model
Suppose a user buys a Radeon 9600 for new games. The specifications of this video card are not bad, but what if they are missing? Of course, correcting the situation in this particular case can be done exclusively by overclocking, since the potential for it has been left very good. The RV350 chip that underlies this card is made using 0.13 micron process technology. This means that there are no real obstacles to a "self-made" increase in productivity.
Important! A simple Radeon 9600 graphics card doesn’t work well for this. The fact is that it has a rather primitive design of the board, not so high-quality memory, and certain problems can arise with the cooling system. So, if you wanted to overclock, you should buy a "professional" model, spared from these offensive flaws.
Simple tips
In addition, for such an option, a motherboard with a 256-bit bus was desirable, since on a 128-bit model it was necessary to raise the voltage too much during overclocking. All this led to a significant overheating, which was fraught with the failure of the equipment. Of course, it is worthwhile to increase performance only if you use officially recommended utilities, which Radeon mentions every time you release new sets of drivers for devices. If you do not have any experience, we strongly do not recommend using BIOS for this, since in this case you can easily burn half of the computer hardware!
What did the test results show?
“For dessert” we offer test results for slightly overclocked copies of this video card. The results were very good! So, with increasing the memory frequency to 700 MHz, the "old man" was on a par with the much newer and more powerful Radeon 9800 Pro. Which is not surprising, since the new model was equipped with a memory with a frequency of 680 MHz. However, do not flatter yourself: the test results show that everything here depends on the particular manufacturer.
The chip can be overclocked immediately to 531 MHz! Note that in this case you do not even have to replace the standard cooling system and do other “tricks”! So if you want on an overclocked Radeon 9600 Series, it’s quite possible to play some games of the late 2000s, which is a very, very worthy result for such a rarity. In addition, all YouTube videos (even in 720p and 1080p resolutions) are played without any delays or brakes. But today the market is full of integrated integrated graphics cards (in entry-level laptops) that "stumble" on such tasks.
Performance Dependence on Board Revision
Thus, the overclocking potential for the chip in this model is 33%, memory - 11%. If we talk about copies of the production of MSI and ASUS, then they drove even better. In addition, overclocking was positively affected by updated versions of drivers that the manufacturer released regularly. By the way, some of their editions gave an increase of 20 to 28%, which was noticeable in games with the naked eye.
The most successful in this regard was the revision of the A13 card, while the first boards were manufactured according to the A12 revision, and therefore their chip worked at a frequency of only 375 MHz. Most likely, the release of Radeon 9600 Pro is connected precisely with the development of a new version of the technological process. The company was able to give users almost unlimited (within reasonable limits) freedom of dispersal, which was especially appreciated by gamers experienced in virtual battles.
Can I use this graphics card today?
So, the main question. Is it possible today to use the Radeon 9600 at least for something? XP, during which this video card was developed and actively sold, is no longer supported, but in newer systems the card will do for some reason. So, if you overclock this “old man” to the maximum, fasten a more advanced cooling system to the video card, then you can play the same “Crisis” (first and second parts).
Of course, at the minimum settings and in the presence of a more or less adequate central processor, which will take on the lion's share of the load. At one time, the ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card (the driver was supposed to be the freshest) even pulled Clear Sky, famous for its hardware requirements.
So the conclusion is quite simple: if you are not a fan of the latest AAA-class games, if you do not need to transcode HD movies daily, then even this card will surely satisfy all your modest requests.
If desired, it can play almost all the games of 2008-2012, without experiencing special difficulties and without getting angry from the constant brakes. Of course, only subject to acceleration. Without it, an ancient and not too powerful graphics processor simply cannot pull out these toys even at medium quality settings, and not everyone wants to play at a minimum.
Reviews
So what do the reviews say? Users believe that if there is a free opportunity to purchase such a video, it is worth taking advantage of. Of course, you should not even dream of new games with such a video, but, in any case, the card takes all the films in 1080p resolution without any problems. Simple “gags” of the same level in stores cost at least two to three thousand rubles, so the “old man” can be a great opportunity to give a second life to an old computer, turning it into a multimedia center.
Reviews say that due to the low-power chip in modern times and the small size of the used stock cooling system, the ATI Radeon 9600 fits perfectly even in the smallest compact cases. Given its low noise, this solution may be ideal for a very cheap working computer, which, however, I want to play from time to time.
Experienced users also say that this model can be used to assemble a simple machine for the cashier’s workplace, in order to educate children in computer science, if we are talking about a rural school with a very modest level of funding.