Direct X 9 is now fully upon us since the old DX8 cards are starting to become long in the tooth. A lot of people are seeing screenshots of new games such as "Far Cry" and the upcoming "Doom 3" and "Half Life 2" and salivating at the eye candy that is our gaming future. Graphics like you see in the screenshots of these games simply don’t happen with a DX8 graphics card and this is what ATI has recognized with the introduction of the XT line of cards. The 9600 XT we are looking at here today is the mid ranged product priced at around $200. Over the course of the review we will see how capable it is up against the RADEON 9600 Pro and its bigger brother, the 9800 Pro. Shall we take a look at what comes inside the attractive retail packaging?
..What have we learned here children? :) We have learned that this card kicks major booty for the price. Sure, it’s not going to perform as well as a RADEON 9700/9800, but those cards are a few hundred dollars more expensive and should not really be compared. If you are in the market for a mid range video card that will not break your bank this is the one you have been dreaming of. High performance in today’s and tomorrow’s games need not carry a high price tag and putting one of these in your PC costs around the same as a game console. 2D performance is also top notch so you Windows users will also benefit from its impressive range of resolutions and refresh rates. While this is really just a higher clocked RADEON 9600 Pro card it also comes in at around the same price, so what’s not to love? This is a great upgrade to ATI’s mid range line of cards and should certainly be the one on top of any budget conscious gamers upgrade list.
ATI Radeon 9600XT @ Ascully
