HiS Excalibur Radeon 9600XT Turbo Video Card Review

The Guru of 3D reviews an ATi 9600XT card from Hightech Information System aimed at the mainstream market, the Excalibur Radeon 9600XT Turbo:

When I take a quick peek at the PCB, I can see it’s closely based on ATI’s reference design yet there are a few differences alright. First off memory, it’s running 50MHz higher then a reference design card, this undoubtedly has a positive effect on the performance as memory bandwidth is a big piece of the pie. Next to that the graphics core of this card runs at default reference 500 MHz. The second item that catches the eye is (next to the ramsinks) a sturdy looking cooler with a little LED built in, especially for case-modders this is ‘leet’ stuff. Mind you that these two advantages are only available on the Turbo model. What gives this card even more value is the fact that you’ll notice there’s a Half-life 2 coupon in the box which saves you 40 bucks on the game. Now if Valve could manage to get their act together and actually release the game in this life-time we’ll all be very happy. Rumors right now are slated at a release date of September 2004.

. . . The oneliner: What HiS produced here is a very interesting product, nice overclocking potential, at default equipped with faster memory compared to reference design, nice cooling and of course a decent software bundle with that additional Half-Life 2 coupon. Combine all that an you are looking at a very tasty product my friends.

Guru of 3D
Excalibur Radeon 9600XT Turbo