There have been alot of speculations concerning ATIs Radeon 9800 Pro 256. FIC leaked out information earlier this spring concerning a document which stated that the clock frequency would be 400/920 MHz.
Now that the card have been released we see that it’s merely 380/700. That means that it has only 20 MHz faster memory than the normal 128Mb version and the same clock frequency on the core. Although 256 MB has its advantages. For instance, you can use FSAA at higher resolutions than before which is of course positive.
Also some games, for example Asherons Call 2 and UT2003, has quality settings that can only be activated if your graphic card has 256 MB memory.
How is the performance then? Of course it is a little bit faster, but in the most cases it is because the 20MHz faster memory. It seems like you get a 1-10% performance gain thanks to the faster and larger memory.
Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB is fast, but is it fast enough to compete with the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB? We will get the answer soon.
Read Hot Hardware’s review of ATi’s new baby here.
Also Gamers Depot got a review here.
As always you can expect these cards here at NordicHardware.com in a near future.
