9800 pro and 9600xt

[mrpotatoman]

Hi I just got a question on these two cards. The 9800pro 128mb version has a engine clock speed speed of 340mhz while the 9600xt has 500mhz. Does this mean the 9600xt is faster or something. Does clock speed matter. Just want to get some inpute. Thanx

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Clock speed, like in the CPU world, means a lot less than marketing would have you believe.

9800Pro = 8 pixel pipes x 340MHz = 2720 pixels/sec
9600XT = 4 pixel pipes x 500MHz = 2000 pixels/sec

The 9800Pro also has a 256-bit wide memory controller, vs the 128-bit of the 9600XT.

- M4H

 

[kylebisme]

Clock speed matters, but only when considered in relation to other things. The 9800pro does 8 pixels per-clock while the 9600xt only does 4 pixels per-clock, so despite the fact that the 9800pro has a much lower clockspeed it still has quite a bit more fillrate.

 

[imported_JeReMY]

9800 PRO is a lot better. The 9600 XT needs high clock speeds to try to compete with the 9800 pro.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: mrpotatoman
Hi I just got a question on these two cards. The 9800pro 128mb version has a engine clock speed speed of 340mhz while the 9600xt has 500mhz. Does this mean the 9600xt is faster or something. Does clock speed matter. Just want to get some inpute. Thanx

9800 pro is 380 core, not 340.

 

[Cawchy87]

theoreticly the 9600xt would have to run twice as fast as the 9800pro to make up for the 4 pipelines. And then the ram has to be overclocked twice as much to make up for crippled 128bit mem interface.

 

[mrpotatoman]

ohh kool. Thanx for the info

 

[Paratus]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87
theoreticly the 9600xt would have to run twice as fast as the 9800pro to make up for the 4 pipelines. And then the ram has to be overclocked twice as much to make up for crippled 128bit mem interface.

That being said folks have OC'd certain 9600XTs upto 750 core 800 mem. It gets it close to the performance of the 9700 PRO or about 5000 3d03 marks. To do that though you need to volt mod the board. As usual the 9800 PRO is the better buy. Or if you can wait the x700xt for the same price is a bit faster.

 

[Cawchy87]

lol, ya i think it goes without saying that unless you have an amazing card, lucked out and got the best 9600xt ram ever made, very skilled with voltmods and bios tweaks and copper heatsinks a foot thick you would probibly best get the 9800pro.

I have had:

9600xt
9700np
9700pro
9800pro

And the 9800pro kills the 9700 series by 10-20 fps and the 9700 series was head and shoulders above the 9600xt. I went from playing 800x600 low quality to 1024x768 high quality on all games!