![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, June 11, 2003
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
PowerColor 9800 Pro
We review PowerColor’s ATI R350 VPU video card. Let's find out if this 128MB card deserves to make your list of possible choices when shopping for a 9800 Pro based graphics accelerator.
Introduction
It has been three months since ATI’s R350 VPU based video card, the Radeon 9800 Pro, was launched. In our first lengthy review of this new VPU from ATI we found that it actually did not have any new technology that was groundbreaking compared to the previous R300 VPU. It was a mild refresh of an already proven core. The notable upgrades were SMARTSHADER 2.1, which included an F-Buffer to allow for limitless pixel shader instructions without the traditional overhead of programs of that length. SMOOTHVISION 2.1 was also introduced giving us a slight bump in AA performance with an improved memory controller. And finally HyperZ III+ was introduced providing optimizations for stencil buffer data. One other interesting refresh they did with this core was to tweak timing and signal integrity to make this core actually clock a lot higher then the previous R300 VPU, an improvement that has clearly shown itself in video cards based on this new VPU.
In April we took a look at our first third party video card based on ATI’s R350 VPU, the VisionTek Xtasy 9800 Pro and it did not disappoint. This video card showed the great overclocking potential the R350 VPU really has. With stock cooling we were able to achieve a stable 450Mhz core speed. That is a 70Mhz overclock from the default 380Mhz core. However, the VisionTek 9800 Pro was lacking in one department that the PowerColor 9800 Pro does not.
C.P. Technology is located in Taiwan with distributors worldwide. Established in 1997, C.P. Technology has grown from a manufacturer of game cards to one offering many home consumer technologies. They provide wireless and home security solutions as well as Internet appliances and service gateway servers. In 1999 PowerColor USA was established along with being partnered with ATI in order to produce an array of "Powered by ATI" video cards. In October of 2002 we got our hands on a Powercolor 9700 Pro for the first time and reviewed it. It was a solid card, but lacked a little in the overclocking department compared to some other 9700 Pro’s we had played with. In fact the general consensus ‘out there’ is that the PowerColor 9700 Pro has not been the best overclocker for the enthusiast. It will be interesting to see how this new card fares.
The PowerColor Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB is PowerColor’s new high end card. It sports all the features of the R350 VPU. One of the biggest pluses with this package is the software bundle that is included. We don’t see as much of this as we used to because many card builders prefer to save the cost in a highly competitive market. This video card is shipped with seven games according to the box. Though what they don’t tell you is that five of those games are just demos. Two games included are the complete full version.
PowerColor 9800 Pro:
The card is situated in the box so that it will not shift during transit. A very long power cable is also included.
As you can see this video card looks exactly like the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. The exact same HSF unit and PCB layout is used that we see on ATI's. Ours came with a little sticker under the part number stamping labeled REV X00. As you can see the label on the back does indicate that this is a Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB video card. (Which is interesting considering what clock speed our card came clocked at as you will see on the next page.)
We were pleasantly surprised to find a generous amount of thermal paste used instead of just a thermal pad which so many vendors use currently. The paste covered every bit of the core and heatsink where it mates. The core itself has a mirror finish once you clean it off, and as you can see it does indeed have "R350" burned into the die.
The RAM modules being used are Samsung K4D26323RA-GC2A chips which have a nanosecond rating of 2.86ns. That gives the chips a theoretical maximum of 350Mhz. Since the default memory speed is 340Mhz for a 9800 Pro this works out well, but doesn’t suggest a lot of headroom for overclocking. Just some more trivial information on these chips they have a CAS Latency of 4 and a RAS to CAS delay for Read of 5 and a RAS to CAS delay for Write of 3. Row Precharge time is 5 and they operate at 2.8v.
As we mentioned the software bundle is very game oriented. You will find a driver disc inside as well as WinDVD 4 for DVD playback. As for the games there is a full version of Comanche 4 and Summoner included. On the games tryout disc there are five demo’s included: Ballistics Demo, Black Hawk Down Demo, Ghost Recon Demo, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Demo, and Vietcong Demo.