System Setup
If you can remember back to page one of this article, you'll recall that I alluded to soft modification of the 9800SE to turn it in to a full 9800 Pro, saving yourself over 50% of the price of a 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder. Not all cards will softmod correctly, the 4 disabled pipelines may genuinely be defective. The law of averages dictates that I had as good a chance as any of getting a fully working R350 core on the press sample, so not trying the softmod would be rude. It worked perfectly, so you'll see softmod numbers on the graphs, along with regular performance from 4 pixel pipes.Along with the 9800SE numbers you'll see 9600XT for a midrange contender and also 9800XT to see just how close a successfully modified 9800SE can get to ATI's current wallet killer.
Here's the formal setup.
Hardware
- Hercules 3D Prophet All-In-Wonder 9800SE, 128MB, AGP8X, R350
- ASUS Radeon 9800XT/TVD, 256MB, AGP8X, R360
- ATI Radeon 9600XT, 128MB, AGP8X, RV360
- Intel Pentium 4 3.0 'C', 15 x 200MHz, 512KB L2, HyperThreading
- EPoX EP-4PDA2+, Intel i865PE (Springdale-PE), Socket 478, dual DDR400
- Corsair XMS3200LLPT, 2 x 256MB, 2-2-2-5
- Enermax 431W PSU
- Swiftech MCX478
- Seagate Barracuda ATA IV 80GB
Software
- Windows XP Professional w/SP1 and current Windows Update patches (as of 14/10/03)
- ATI CATALYST 3.8
- Intel Chipset Driver 5.00.1012
- DirectX 9.0a Runtime
- 3DMark 2001SE v330
- 3DMark03 v330
- Aquamark 3
- Gun Metal 2
- Serious Sam 2 (SDC demo, Extreme addon)
- Unreal Tournament 2003 Retail (HEXUS custom demo)
- X2: The Threat Rolling Demo