Radeon 9700 Official Benchmarks

Doomtrooper · Aug 19, 2002, 02:35 PM

For all the folks interested in the Radeon 9700, all the major review sites have their reviews up today:

http://www.beyond3d.com
http://www.hardocp.com
http://www.anandtech.com
http://www.tomshardware.com

GravY · Aug 19, 2002, 05:02 PM

All I can say is OH MY

those tests of higher resolutions stomp the TI4600 in most cases, but the big test for me was to enable AA and Aniso and the 9700 say's bye bye to the 4600 in a hurry.. This is very impressive and am gald ATI was able to hold up there end and give us a good card this is a clear competitor to Nvidia.. CPU scaling is impressive as well..

iceboy · Aug 19, 2002, 07:39 PM

radeon 9700 looks amazing.. but i am wondering how the nv30 would say goodbye to 9700 when it's released. Wanted to get this card when nv30 is released.. budden i wondered how doom3 looks in stereo 3D.

guess i'll just start saving until nv30 is available. Maybe this generation of cards can last for a couple of years if they can run Doom 3 at max quality with max FSAA and max AF with 1280x1024.

Furious · Aug 19, 2002, 07:46 PM

Whatever nv30's performance is going to be I'm pretty sure that it won't do to the 9700 what the 9700's done to the 4600.

In other words it'll probably be faster but not by much judging from the information currently available.

Kosh · Aug 19, 2002, 08:10 PM

The only thing bothering me about the Radeon 9700 is that it's only able to do a single texture pr pass pr pipeline where as the GF4 can do 2 textures pr pass pr pipeline.

A lot of games uses multitexturing ....

Of course having 8 rendering pipelines helps but still 4 rendering pipelines which can do 2 textures pr pass can keep pace with 8 single texture rendering pipelines.

I don't know why ATI made this decision and I don't know how it will affect DX9 performance, we will just have to wait and see.

Aug 19, 2002, 09:34 PM

this card isn't even close to where nv30's expected to be, fill rate, or technologically. the only reason ati even made a fuss about this card is because of the 4 mon. slack that nvidia, either slipped, or 'possibly' gave them. this card is barely above where the current dx8 nvidia card is. there certainly no cause to think ati's 'stomping' nvidia's lesser generationally speaking card. the gf'5' will undoubtedly be twice the gf4... if you've read what nvidia says... they phraze their cards in generations... like nv 1xx is gf2, gf3 being nv2xx, gf4's are still 2xx... the next generation of cards should well stomp ati's card out, atleast doubling the frame rates of at least a few games... where ati's 'next generation' card, doesn't even double the lesser generation card of nvidia's... and in some cases not even having frames above it... that's pritty crappy in my opinion....

WyreTheWolf · Aug 19, 2002, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kosh
The only thing bothering me about the Radeon 9700 is that it's only able to do a single texture pr pass pr pipeline where as the GF4 can do 2 textures pr pass pr pipeline.

A lot of games uses multitexturing ....

Of course having 8 rendering pipelines helps but still 4 rendering pipelines which can do 2 textures pr pass can keep pace with 8 single texture rendering pipelines.

I don't know why ATI made this decision and I don't know how it will affect DX9 performance, we will just have to wait and see.

This is what TomsHardware had to say about it:

"ATi is proud that Radeon 9700 is the first mainstream graphics chip with eight parallel pixel rendering pipelines. This is twice the amount of pipelines found in current high-end graphics chips. At a clock of 325 MHz, the eight pipelines are able to supply a fill rate of 8 * 325 = 2,600 Mpixels/s. Each pixel rendering pipeline has one texture unit, so the multi texturing fill rate is the same as the single texturing fill rate above. It might look as if one texture unit per pipeline is very little, but if you calculate the memory bandwidth requirement of eight parallel pipes with one texture unit doing a trilinear 32-bit color texture lookup, you will understand why two texture units wouldn't have made an awful lot of sense: 32 bit * 8 (trilinear filtering requires 8 texels to be read) * 8 (eight pipelines) = 2048 bit. 2048 bit would have to be read per clock, but 'only' 512 bit per clock are provided by the 256 bit-wide DDR memory interface of Radeon 9700. Bilinear filtering mode would still require 1024 bit per clock. Two texture units per pipe could never be fed by the memory interface. This is why it wouldn't have made sense to add those units. "

It does make sense. It is all about the numbers.

Frodo301 · Aug 19, 2002, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by phiph
this card isn't even close to where nv30's expected to be, fill rate, or technologically. the only reason ati even made a fuss about this card is because of the 4 mon. slack that nvidia, either slipped, or 'possibly' gave them. this card is barely above where the current dx8 nvidia card is. there certainly no cause to think ati's 'stomping' nvidia's lesser generationally speaking card. the gf'5' will undoubtedly be twice the gf4... if you've read what nvidia says... they phraze their cards in generations... like nv 1xx is gf2, gf3 being nv2xx, gf4's are still 2xx... the next generation of cards should well stomp ati's card out, atleast doubling the frame rates of at least a few games... where ati's 'next generation' card, doesn't even double the lesser generation card of nvidia's... and in some cases not even having frames above it... that's pritty crappy in my opinion....

Necrosis · Aug 20, 2002, 12:13 AM

I guess it's just hard for people to accept the GF4 finally has been beaten.

Can't wait to order my 9700 Pro!!

WyreTheWolf · Aug 20, 2002, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by phiph
this card isn't even close to where nv30's expected to be, fill rate, or technologically. the only reason ati even made a fuss about this card is because of the 4 mon. slack that nvidia, either slipped, or 'possibly' gave them. this card is barely above where the current dx8 nvidia card is. there certainly no cause to think ati's 'stomping' nvidia's lesser generationally speaking card. the gf'5' will undoubtedly be twice the gf4... if you've read what nvidia says... they phraze their cards in generations... like nv 1xx is gf2, gf3 being nv2xx, gf4's are still 2xx... the next generation of cards should well stomp ati's card out, atleast doubling the frame rates of at least a few games... where ati's 'next generation' card, doesn't even double the lesser generation card of nvidia's... and in some cases not even having frames above it... that's pritty crappy in my opinion....

SMACK! phiph gets slapped around with a large fermented trout.

Yeti · Aug 20, 2002, 03:57 AM

NV30? 9700? John Carmack has put his foot down and said that my 85k will run Doom III. More importantly i know that it will run UT2k3!! Now i want a 9700 .... and by god i'll have one.... but if you all would just realize that the price of the 9700 is going to drop by 75-100$ in 1 month (through OEM pricewatch)... i think that you would all agree that buying it NOW is a waste of cash. Yes/No?

digitalwanderer · Aug 20, 2002, 05:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Yeti
NV30? 9700? John Carmack has put his foot down and said that my 85k will run Doom III. More importantly i know that it will run UT2k3!! Now i want a 9700 .... and by god i'll have one.... but if you all would just realize that the price of the 9700 is going to drop by 75-100$ in 1 month (through OEM pricewatch)... i think that you would all agree that buying it NOW is a waste of cash. Yes/No?

A BIG waste of cash. Cool if you got the money to burn, but I'm going to wait even longer than a month before I plunk down the cash for one! Cutting edge viddy cards depreciate quicker than new cars! In 3 months it's gonna be $150 to get something with the R300 core in it, and that's probably when I'm gonna just start to think about it.

My rigs run games great, I gotta start accepting that and quit thinking about the next upgrade so much and concentrate a bit more on having fun with what I have. When a game comes out that gives either of my rigs any trouble I'll start worrying about another video card.

GravY · Aug 20, 2002, 06:26 AM

I am at a point where I have to decide to buy now or hold off alittle.. My 8500 just took a turn for the worse.. guess I pushed it too hard too long and it finally had enough.. so I need a new vid card now.. but don't want to plunk down 399.. 299 ok.. but at 100 more it seems alittle stupid.. errr no games for a while.. what am I going to do..??

RadeonMAXX · Aug 20, 2002, 06:33 AM

Here's a couple more reviews for you guys.

HardOcp.com http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzQw

FiringSquad.com http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/r300/default.asp

& for your viewing pleasures, here's a couple nice overclocks!!

From a french site.... http://212.43.236.46/ar/gen/1452-11.html

& from FiringSquad.
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/r300/page28.asp

digitalwanderer · Aug 20, 2002, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GravY
I am at a point where I have to decide to buy now or hold off alittle.. My 8500 just took a turn for the worse.. guess I pushed it too hard too long and it finally had enough.. so I need a new vid card now.. but don't want to plunk down 399.. 299 ok.. but at 100 more it seems alittle stupid.. errr no games for a while.. what am I going to do..??

I'd pick up a cheap GF3 or 8500 used to see me thru until the 9700 gets a tad more reasonable. (Or go all out and pick up a GF4 ti4200...that's what I'd get if I needed a new gaming card today.

)

GravY · Aug 20, 2002, 04:46 PM

ok, so a good 8500 = 150.00 and when the 9700 comes down in price 150-200.00 = 300-350.00 total.. I might as well just get the 9700 when it drops around 100.00..

anyone have a good vid card laying around they don't need??

digitalwanderer · Aug 20, 2002, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GravY
ok, so a good 8500 = 150.00 and when the 9700 comes down in price 150-200.00 = 300-350.00 total.. I might as well just get the 9700 when it drops around 100.00..

anyone have a good vid card laying around they don't need??

You. Are. High! $150 for a good 8500?!? You should be able to find one for about half that if'n you poke around the trade/sell zones on the boards!

AlternateVirus · Aug 21, 2002, 01:11 AM

yea he is, i bought my retail 8500 64mb for less than 100 bucks and that was like a month ago. you should be able to find one for 80 bucks.

Necrosis · Aug 21, 2002, 02:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Necrosis
I guess it's just hard for people to accept the GF4 finally has been beaten.

Can't wait to order my 9700 Pro!!

Well she's ordered!!!

Kosh · Aug 21, 2002, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by WyreTheWolf
This is what TomsHardware had to say about it:

"ATi is proud that Radeon 9700 is the first mainstream graphics chip with eight parallel pixel rendering pipelines. This is twice the amount of pipelines found in current high-end graphics chips. At a clock of 325 MHz, the eight pipelines are able to supply a fill rate of 8 * 325 = 2,600 Mpixels/s. Each pixel rendering pipeline has one texture unit, so the multi texturing fill rate is the same as the single texturing fill rate above. It might look as if one texture unit per pipeline is very little, but if you calculate the memory bandwidth requirement of eight parallel pipes with one texture unit doing a trilinear 32-bit color texture lookup, you will understand why two texture units wouldn't have made an awful lot of sense: 32 bit * 8 (trilinear filtering requires 8 texels to be read) * 8 (eight pipelines) = 2048 bit. 2048 bit would have to be read per clock, but 'only' 512 bit per clock are provided by the 256 bit-wide DDR memory interface of Radeon 9700. Bilinear filtering mode would still require 1024 bit per clock. Two texture units per pipe could never be fed by the memory interface. This is why it wouldn't have made sense to add those units. "

It does make sense. It is all about the numbers.

Hmmm ... what about the 9500 then ... it will only have 4 rendering pipelines which will hurt it if it doesn't support dual texturing.

Aug 19, 2002, 02:35 PM	#1
Doomtrooper Driverheaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: The Great White North Posts: 206 Rep Power: 0	Radeon 9700 Official Benchmarks For all the folks interested in the Radeon 9700, all the major review sites have their reviews up today: http://www.beyond3d.com http://www.hardocp.com http://www.anandtech.com http://www.tomshardware.com __________________ "It's time to kick A$$ and chew bubble gum....and I'm all out of gum." Duke Nukem November 1996

Aug 19, 2002, 05:02 PM	#2
GravY Master Shake Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Michigan Posts: 199 Rep Power: 0	All I can say is OH MY those tests of higher resolutions stomp the TI4600 in most cases, but the big test for me was to enable AA and Aniso and the 9700 say's bye bye to the 4600 in a hurry.. This is very impressive and am gald ATI was able to hold up there end and give us a good card this is a clear competitor to Nvidia.. CPU scaling is impressive as well.. __________________ Amd 2400+ @ 2415mhz 11.5x210, Vantec Aeroflow, 512mb Pc3200 5-2-2-2, 9500np->9700 [color=red]17697[/color] 3dmark2k1 [color=red]5630[/color] 3dmark03, Epox 8rda+ Mobo, WD Special 8mb cache 80gig, Plex 48/24/48

Aug 19, 2002, 07:46 PM	#4
Furious I'm blind not deaf!! Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 260 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Whatever nv30's performance is going to be I'm pretty sure that it won't do to the 9700 what the 9700's done to the 4600. In other words it'll probably be faster but not by much judging from the information currently available. __________________

Aug 19, 2002, 08:10 PM	#5
Kosh DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Aarhus, Denmark Posts: 10 Rep Power: 0	The only thing bothering me about the Radeon 9700 is that it's only able to do a single texture pr pass pr pipeline where as the GF4 can do 2 textures pr pass pr pipeline. A lot of games uses multitexturing .... Of course having 8 rendering pipelines helps but still 4 rendering pipelines which can do 2 textures pr pass can keep pace with 8 single texture rendering pipelines. I don't know why ATI made this decision and I don't know how it will affect DX9 performance, we will just have to wait and see. __________________ Fear, makes wise men foolish.

Aug 19, 2002, 09:34 PM	#6
phiph Guest Posts: n/a	ya.. ummm this card isn't even close to where nv30's expected to be, fill rate, or technologically. the only reason ati even made a fuss about this card is because of the 4 mon. slack that nvidia, either slipped, or 'possibly' gave them. this card is barely above where the current dx8 nvidia card is. there certainly no cause to think ati's 'stomping' nvidia's lesser generationally speaking card. the gf'5' will undoubtedly be twice the gf4... if you've read what nvidia says... they phraze their cards in generations... like nv 1xx is gf2, gf3 being nv2xx, gf4's are still 2xx... the next generation of cards should well stomp ati's card out, atleast doubling the frame rates of at least a few games... where ati's 'next generation' card, doesn't even double the lesser generation card of nvidia's... and in some cases not even having frames above it... that's pritty crappy in my opinion....

Aug 19, 2002, 07:39 PM	#3
iceboy DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: SG Posts: 185 Rep Power: 0	radeon 9700 looks amazing.. but i am wondering how the nv30 would say goodbye to 9700 when it's released. Wanted to get this card when nv30 is released.. budden i wondered how doom3 looks in stereo 3D. guess i'll just start saving until nv30 is available. Maybe this generation of cards can last for a couple of years if they can run Doom 3 at max quality with max FSAA and max AF with 1280x1024.

Aug 20, 2002, 12:13 AM	#9
Necrosis HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 8,838 Rep Power: 129 System Specs	I guess it's just hard for people to accept the GF4 finally has been beaten. Can't wait to order my 9700 Pro!!

Aug 20, 2002, 03:57 AM	#11
Yeti DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 662 Rep Power: 0	NV30? 9700? John Carmack has put his foot down and said that my 85k will run Doom III. More importantly i know that it will run UT2k3!! Now i want a 9700 .... and by god i'll have one.... but if you all would just realize that the price of the 9700 is going to drop by 75-100$ in 1 month (through OEM pricewatch)... i think that you would all agree that buying it NOW is a waste of cash. Yes/No? __________________ --Oh lord not again

Aug 20, 2002, 06:26 AM	#13
GravY Master Shake Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Michigan Posts: 199 Rep Power: 0	I am at a point where I have to decide to buy now or hold off alittle.. My 8500 just took a turn for the worse.. guess I pushed it too hard too long and it finally had enough.. so I need a new vid card now.. but don't want to plunk down 399.. 299 ok.. but at 100 more it seems alittle stupid.. errr no games for a while.. what am I going to do..?? __________________ Amd 2400+ @ 2415mhz 11.5x210, Vantec Aeroflow, 512mb Pc3200 5-2-2-2, 9500np->9700 [color=red]17697[/color] 3dmark2k1 [color=red]5630[/color] 3dmark03, Epox 8rda+ Mobo, WD Special 8mb cache 80gig, Plex 48/24/48

Aug 20, 2002, 06:33 AM	#14
RadeonMAXX Made Man Join Date: May 2002 Location: Portland, Oregon USA! Posts: 275 Rep Power: 0	Here's a couple more reviews for you guys. HardOcp.com http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzQw FiringSquad.com http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/r300/default.asp & for your viewing pleasures, here's a couple nice overclocks!! From a french site.... http://212.43.236.46/ar/gen/1452-11.html & from FiringSquad. http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/r300/page28.asp __________________ WinXP Home Edition/ Service Pack 1 beta(build 1050) Athlon XP@1.4ghz Original Radeon 8500 - ATI CATALYST 2.1 IWiLL KK266 motherboard DirectX 9 beta 2 Download KaZaA now!! http://www.kazaa.com/en/index.php R300 "Crush the Force!" -Dave Orton, Ati President

Aug 20, 2002, 04:46 PM	#16
GravY Master Shake Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Michigan Posts: 199 Rep Power: 0	ok, so a good 8500 = 150.00 and when the 9700 comes down in price 150-200.00 = 300-350.00 total.. I might as well just get the 9700 when it drops around 100.00.. anyone have a good vid card laying around they don't need?? __________________ Amd 2400+ @ 2415mhz 11.5x210, Vantec Aeroflow, 512mb Pc3200 5-2-2-2, 9500np->9700 [color=red]17697[/color] 3dmark2k1 [color=red]5630[/color] 3dmark03, Epox 8rda+ Mobo, WD Special 8mb cache 80gig, Plex 48/24/48

Aug 21, 2002, 01:11 AM	#18
AlternateVirus DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 282 Rep Power: 0	yea he is, i bought my retail 8500 64mb for less than 100 bucks and that was like a month ago. you should be able to find one for 80 bucks.