ATI Video Card Confusion

[Mosley]

I want to buy a video card, and am thinking about ATI. I am really confused about all of the different models they have. Can someone make sense of this?

There is the RADEON 9800 Graphics Technology. Is this the top of the line? what is the difference between the ALL-IN-WONDER 9800 PRO, RADEON 9800 PRO, and the RADEON 9800?

Then there is the RADEON 9700 Graphics Technology. again what is the difference between the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO, ALL-IN-WONDER 9700, and the RADEON 9700 PRO?

And I have listed a few others:

RADEON 9600 Graphics Technology
ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 PRO
RADEON 9600 PRO
RADEON 9600

RADEON 9200 Graphics Technology
RADEON 9200 PRO
RADEON 9200
RADEON 9200SE

RADEON 9000 Graphics Technology
ALL-IN-WONDER 9000 PRO
RADEON 9000 PRO
RADEON 9000

[saphalline]

The answer is simpler than it seems. ;) The All-in-Wonder versions have a built-in TV tuner for capturing analog TV footage, VCR tapes, set-top DVD players, etc. They're more expensive because they basically allow you to turn your PC into a TiVo (albeit not as convenient), but very handy for an all-in-one graphics card & TV tuner card. If you have no interest in spending the extra money on an AIW version, don't bother with them.

The "Pro" versions are just what you'd expect. They're better than the "non-Pro" versions with higher core & RAM speeds. In some cases, the "Pro" even denotes other architectural improvements (like with the Radeon 9500's). The "SE" is not always used by ATI, but when it is, it means the opposite of "Pro" - lower core & RAM speeds. The budget version.

The model numbers represent the level of graphics technology and architecture that each line has. The 9000, 9100, and 9200 are all DX8 compliant and are decent performers for the money (get a 9200/Pro if you want one of these). The 9600 is the mid-range from ATI right now and offers, well... mid-range performance. The 9600 is faster than the 9200 and is DX9 compliant, but otherwise offers no outstanding architectural improvements. The 9800 is where the real meat is! :D Faster still than the 9600 and also DX9 compliant, but the best part is that the 9800 offers more than twice the RAM bandwidth vs the 9600! For tomorrow's games (and today's games at high resolutions with AA/Aniso) this creates quite a performance gap between the two. Of course, the cost of admission is also noticably higher for 9800's vs 9600's.

If you want more detail, just ask.

[Mosley]

Thanks saphalline.

One more question. Can you explain the differences between the NVidia graphics cards? And how they compare to ATI graphics cards?

[saphalline]

NVidia currently has their GeForce FX line of video cards.

The FX 5200/Ultra is a bit more powerful than a Radeon 9200 I believe. More so for the Ultra version (just like "Pro" for ATI). The 5200 is DX9 compliant, but don't think you'll be playing any DX9 games at a decent frame rate. It just doesn't have the power. Oh, and watch out for the low-end 5200's that have half the RAM bandwidth of the standard ones! Not good. The FX 5200 comes with 64MB, 128MB or 256MB of video RAM. Save the money and skip the 256MB version - it doesn't have the power to use that much memory.

Next is the FX 5600/Ultra which is virtually identical to the 5200 except for the higher speeds (and the completed pipelines). The 5600 is about on par with a Radeon 9600, in general they trade blows in gaming performance. The 5600/Ultra does have good DX9 performance and benefits from the larger 256MB of video memory, but the 128MB versions are also acceptable.

The real meat for NVidia is the FX 5900/Ultra and has all the same advantages that the Radeon 9800/Pro has. DX9 compliant and twice the RAM bandwidth of its lesser cousins. Tho not very measurable today, the 5900 is more powerful than the Radeon 9800 (mostly because of core speed differences). We just won't see what either of these cards can do until Half Life 2 and Doom III are released. The Radeon 9800/Pro and GeForce FX 5900/Ultra are both more than ready for that extra boost that 256MB of video memory can give.

It's interesting to notice that while ATI was first to put DX8 compliance on their low-end video cards, they haven't changed that. NVidia skipped DX8 on their low-end cards and went straight to DX9. Who's on top now? Hard to say until the next wave of video cards are released (probably by January).