Radeon 9800 Pro sets sail this month

ATI has been working hard the last few months on their latest video card; the Radeon 9800 Pro. There is not much difference in architecture with the 9700 but it is a good bit faster. Nothing new was added to the design but improvements have provided great efficientcy to the card. The clockspeed was increased, support for Microsoft’s DirectX 9.0 was enhanced, data compression and other algorithms were improved all making for a more efficient use of the memory bandwidth, thus increasing performance. The Radeon 9700 Pro didn’t provide a convincing victory over GeForce FX but the Radeon 9800 Pro does. Let’s see whether ATI is able to keep the performance lead throughout this quarter though, as Nvidia is working hard on getting their NV35 part out of the door. As of right now, Radeon 9800 Pro is the fastest video card available.


The new line:

A special 256-MB version of the Radeon 9800 Pro will debut in April.



The Radeon 9800 Pro ($399) and the Radeon 9800 (lower clock speed - $349) 128-MB boards.

Began shipping in March.



The Radeon 9600 Pro ($169-$199) and Radeon 9600 ($149-$169) cards.

Begins shipping in April.



The Radeon 9200($79-$149) - depending on the memory (64-MB/128-MB) and Radeon 9200 Pro/Radeon 9200 configurations.