ATI debuts Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card for Mac, PC
updated 09:05 am EDT, Fri August 19, 2005
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro GPU
ATI Technologies today introduced the , a new graphics card that supports both Mac and PC platforms. The Radeon 9600 Pro offers dual-link capabilities to support ultra high-resolution flat panel monitors such as Apple's 30-inch Cinema Display. The new card features ATI's most popular graphics processors for AGP-based systems -- the Radeon 9600 Pro -- and includes 256MB of dedicated high-speed memory. It offers a 128-bit memory interface and advanced DirectX 9.0 shader support with floating point precision as well as support for resolutions up to 2560x1600 (via the card's dual-link DVI display support). The AGP based Radeon 9600 Pro PC and Mac Edition is available for $200.
"By providing one card as a solution for two distinct platforms, ATI is making purchasing decisions easy for the computer user. There is no confusion as to whether the card will work in a Mac or a PC, because the Radeon 9600 Pro PC and Mac Edition will provide incredible performance and image quality in both," said Rich Heye, Vice President, Desktop Discrete Graphics, ATI. "As ultra-high resolution monitors have become increasingly popular for mainstream users, the dual-link functionality has become an important feature of graphics cards and ATI is unmatched in the consumer space at this price."
ATI said that the dual-platform Radeon 9600 Pro PC and Mac Edition is AGP 2.0 compliant, delivering compatibility with both AGP 4X and 8X systems, including Apple's Power Mac G4 series, Power Mac G5 and "tens of millions" of PC's sold over the last few years. The card can be booted in either platform and software drivers are included for both platforms. ATI Displays, the fully optimized Mac OS X OpenGL driver, features advanced capabilities such as Versavision, enabling screen rotation from Landscape to Portrait mode.
Great
08/19, 09:26am reply
Where can I buy it? It's not in their store but this release says it "is available."
jaysones
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
Compare
08/19, 09:56am reply
How does this card compare with their other offerings? For example, my mac came with the 9650 standard, and I've been thinking of upgrading when my bonus comes in (or I get laid off and my severance comes in).
Where does one go to find comparisons on all these things, anyway?
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
How does this compare?
08/19, 10:03am reply
In particular to the 9800 Pro? It has a lower number, which suggests it is slower, but it may be more expensive than the PC card with flashed ROMs, as so many buy for the Mac.
uucp
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2005
Comparison to 9800
08/19, 11:56am reply
It appears to have about half the game performance of the 9800. Games prefer more rendering pipelines. The 9800 has 8, the 9600 has only 4.
Why don't they just give us 8 pipelines? That has to be dirt cheap by now.
pdxdude
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2005
Cheap dual-link
08/19, 12:05pm reply
The point of this product seems to be as a cheap dual-link DVI solution compared to GeForce 6800 series or ATI X800 series. It's 3D performance will be slightly less than a 9650 and noticeably less than a 9800 series.
A normal PC Radeon 9600 Pro can be had for under $75. They are charging a large premium for the dual-link capability.
This is for people who want to run the 30" display and not drop a ton on a video card.
B.I.L
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2000
Hm...
08/19, 02:56pm reply
What's the difference between this 9600 and my 128 meg 9600 XT that came with my G5 2.5?
No significant change in performance except more ram?
Can't my 9600 XT run one of the 30" monitors too?
Todd Madson
Mac Elite
Joined: Apr 2000
Benchmarks
08/22, 09:49am reply
Barefeats benchmarked this new 256MB 9600 against the "lowly" 128MB 9800 and it got destroyed. http://www.barefeats.com/rad4x.html
The 9800 is about twice as fast.
yikes600
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2004