|
PowerColor Radeon 9800 XT 256MB
Catalyst 3.9 Drivers
UPDATE 01/04/04: There was a typo throughout the entire review stating we were testing with the Catalyst 3.8 drivers when in fact we were testing with the later 3.9 version. I hope this clears up any confusion. The first difference with the Catalyst 3.9 drivers is the ability to uninstall them through Add/Remove Programs. This makes swapping of cards and drivers much easier. Also new in the 3.9 drivers is the Overdrive and VPU Recovery features, easier navigation through tabs, and some nifty, but pretty much pointless shader effects. Overdrive  If you still want to try and squeeze out the most performance by yourself, you can disable the Overdrive feature (disabled by default) and use third party programs (such as Rage3D Tweak) to overclock the core and memory. While Overdrive looks promising and may potentially be more worthwhile in the future, I feel it doesn't quite live up to the hype surrounding it. I also find it odd that ATI didn't allow you to monitor the temperatures and clock speeds that the card is currently running at. *Only Radeon XT cards can take advantage of the Overdrive feature.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: What's Included & The Card Page 3: Catalyst 3.9 Drivers Part 1 Page 4: Catalyst 3.9 Drivers Part 2 Page 5: Catalyst 4.1 Drivers Page 6: Test Setup / Benchmarking Page 7: Halo Page 8: Unreal Tournament 2003 Page 9: Elite Force 2 Page 10: Splinter Cell Page 11: Need for Speed: Underground Page 12: Call of Duty Page 13: Final Fantasy XI Vana'diel Bench2 Page 14: AquaMark3 Page 15: GunMetal Page 16: Image Quality Page 17: Overclocking / Conclusion 
Related Reviews Video Cards September 23, 2009
Video Cards June 25, 2009
Video Cards June 8, 2009
Video Cards April 6, 2009
Add Comment
6 User Comments 1 - Posted by
jasonwatkins
on January 4, 2004 - 5:39 am Just curious, in the review you didn't state why you used old ATI drivers that are 2 revisions outdated. The current version 3.10's have been out for 2 weeks, but you used version 3.8 (3 months old). Therefore your PQ comparison to nVidia might not be valid since you used the latest nVidia drivers (dated 12/9) against old ATI drivers dated 10/8. Jason 2 - Posted by
A Person
on January 4, 2004 - 2:39 pm 3.8 is older than 3.10?
3 - Posted by
jasonwatkins
on January 4, 2004 - 3:03 pm Yes, ATI has been releasing drivers in this order: 3.8, 3.9, 3.10 (3.ten). The 3.10's are the tenth release in the 3 series. Jason 4 - Posted by
DnD
on January 4, 2004 - 3:15 pm Hey I think I just found what you can get me for my birthday :D
5 - Posted by
Kurtis
on January 4, 2004 - 3:40 pm EDIT: Just figured out what the prob was... We used the 3.9 drivers, and it was a typo in the review. So, in fact, we did not use 3.8, we used 3.9. Sorry for the confusion, review is being updated right now. Also, the 3.10 drivers came out on 12/17, and that was after we had started testing. We will also update the review again as soon as we can get a 5950 Ultra. At that time I will probably retest all the cards, or maybe just the 9800xt and the fx5950 ultra, we'll see. 6 - Posted by
A Person
on January 5, 2004 - 12:23 am Ahh, that makes sense. I cant wait to see the 9800pro and the 5950ultra head to head. Most people just review one or the other, this is gonna be interesting. Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
Recent Articles Editorials March 15, 2010
Editorials August 27, 2009
Editorials August 18, 2009
Editorials March 17, 2009
Recent News Jason Bradbury Mar. 19, 2010 - 10:52 pm
Rock Paper Shotgun Mar. 19, 2010 - 10:44 pm
joystiq Mar. 19, 2010 - 6:58 pm
Tom's Hardware Mar. 19, 2010 - 4:42 pm
Rock Paper Shotgun Mar. 18, 2010 - 11:58 pm
Fudzilla Mar. 18, 2010 - 11:57 pm
CVG Mar. 18, 2010 - 11:53 pm
Tech Radar Mar. 16, 2010 - 11:58 pm
|
|||||||||||||||
