When it comes to video cards, manufacturers always have three classes; high-end, mid-range and the low-end, which they like to call "budget". High-end cards are the framerate kings, though you pay for that. Budget cards make your accountant (likely the girlfriend or wife) happy, but you'll be screaming at your screen as another sudden framerate dip just got you fragged. As a mid-range graphic card, the Radeon 9600 Pro finds a nice balance between performance and pricing. Given this fact, it should come as no surprise that it's these types of cards that make up the majority of sales.

Something we think ATI should have done long ago, they have done the smart thing and licensed 3rd party manufacturers to make Powered by ATI cards. This allows more flexible marketing options, and gives ATI time to focus on developing the technology. Today we will be reviewing the FIC A96P Radeon 9600 Pro, pitting it against the FX5600 Ultra to see which one offers the most bang for your buck.

Specifications

Graphics Engine	ATI RADEON™ 9600 Pro
Video Memory	128MB DDR
Core / Memory Clock	400MHz / 300MHz
Memory Interface	128 bit
Maximum 3D Resolution	2048 x 1536 x 75Hz
Advanced 3D Features	SMOOTHVISION™2.0 TRUFORM™2.0 SMARTHEADER™2.0 HYPER Z™ III VIDEOSHADER™
Bus Type	AGP 8X or 4X compatible
Display Support	CRT DVI-I TV-out Dual display
API Support	DirectX® 9.0 OpenGL®
OS Support	Windows® ME Windows® 2000 Windows® XP
Bundled Software	Driver WinDVD

The FIC A96P Radeon 9600 Pro

Looking at the A96P Radeon 9600 Pro, we can see that it is a pretty simple card. There isn't much in the way of eyecandy, like ramsinks. Speaking of which, the A96P uses Samsung ram rated at 300MHz, and the VPU core frequency is at 400 MHZ. Unlike many mid-range and high-end cards, you can see no external power is needed.

FIC changed the reference ATI cooler with one of their own. We don't have much info, but as we'll see later on, it's well suited for overclocking, and doesn't run that loud at all.

ATI provides a standard VGA, DVI and S-Video out, and with the DVI-to-VGA adapter, you have dual monitor support. It would have been nice if they had included a video capture input, but for the cost you can't ask much.

For the dual monitor function this is a really good feature for someone like me who does music recording, since I have the capability of viewing all my music software at the same time. Also if you like to play with movie editing software, you can have two primary displays at the same time, rather than a primary, then secondary.

Installation

Video is outputted by a couple of methods. You have your standard VGA, DVI , or the s-video-out connection with RCA adaptor. How to use the VGA connection, well I'm sure that we don't need to write a chapter on this one. If so, maybe you should think of changing vocations or give your computer for a charity donation. :P

The 9600 Pro comes with a video output cable that plugs directly into the s-video adapter that you have to plug into the graphic card. This cable is used to output video on your TV set or VCR. If your television support s-video, use it, as it gives better quality then RCA.

For the software setup, everything gets set in the advance display proprieties, dual display Television and DVI.

Software

Only one CD came with the Radeon 9600 pro, it included the ATI drivers and Win DVD software. This makes the 9600 Pro a light software package, but in my point of view that is for the best because with no games included in the software bundles it makes card a little less expensive.

Win DVD

We can't say much about Win DVD; it's a DVD software player, standard and useful.

Drivers

As we all know, even if the driver CD comes with the card, we prefer go online and download the latest drivers.

Test Setup

ABIT NF7-S v2.0: AMD Barton 2500+, 2 x 256MB Corsair TWINX PC3200 Ram, FIC A96P Radeon 9600 Pro, 80GB Western Digital, Windows XP SP1, ATI Catalyst 3.6.

ABIT NF7-S v2.0: AMD Barton 2500+, 2 x 256MB Corsair TWINX PC3200 Ram, XFX FX5600 Ultra, 80GB Western Digital, Windows XP SP1, Detonator FX 45.23.

Test Software will be:

Code Creatures
Unreal Tournament 2003
Jedi Knight 2
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Splinter Cell

The comparison video card will be the XFX FX5600 Ultra. Benchmarks will be shown with and without AntiAliasing and Aninsotropic Filtering. We'll also be covering image quality and over clocking after the gaming benchmarks. All benchmarks are run at high quality, "Balanced" in the control panel settings.

Code Creatures @ 1024x768

This is a DX8 benchmark. Given that the 9600 Pro is a DX9 part, we can get an idea of how it will handle an older video shader specification.

Code Creatures @ 1280x1024

In the Code Creature tests, the FX5600 seems to be falling a step behind. The differences aren't that drastic though, and it's just by a couple frames per second. Both cards do struggle at AA/AF settings above 2xAA and 8xAF though.

Unreal Tournament 2003

We used the UT2003 benchmarking scripts from [H]ard|OCP and selected the high quality batch run at all resolutions. We'll be presenting Antalus, Inferno, and Citadel benchmarks, with AA/AF on and off.

Antalus @ 1024, Max Detail

The 9600 Pro maintains it's lead over the FX5600 at 1024 resolution. The majority of online gamers play at lower resolutions to maintain a higher frame rate, and it performs great in these situations.

Antalus @ 1280, Max Detail

At 1280 the 9600 Pro is still leading, but as you may notice, the lead becomes more evident at higher AA and AF levels. Even at 8xAA, the 9600 Pro outmatches the 5600 Ultra with it's own 6XS setting.

Citadel @ 1024, Max Detail

Citadel @ 1280, Max Detail

I can't say much; the numbers speak for themselves. Again, without AA/AF, it's a toss-up, but at higher AA/AF settings the FIC A96P proves itself to be the stronger card.

Inferno @ 1024, Max Detail

Inferno @ 1280, Max Detail

This last set of UT2003 benchmarks lead us to conclude that at least for this game, the XFX 5600 Ultra is not up to FIC 9600 Pro when it comes to high AA/AF.

Jedi Knight II

Jedi Knight II is a little more CPU limited than video card limited, but make no mistake, a fast video card is required if you still want good framerates at high resolutions and all the effects turned on.

Jedi Knight II @ 1024, Max Detail

Jedi Knight II @ 1280, Max Detail

The FX5600 Ultra makes a strong stand here, besting the 9600 Pro with no AA/AF, and 2xAA/8xAF. There is one thing that is in the FIC A96P's favour thought, and that's the performance at higher AA/AF levels. Looking at 1024, we see only a 10fps loss when AA is set at 8x and AF at 16x. If you look back at our XFX 5600 Pro review, you can see that performance drops drastically on the XFX as we increase AA/AF.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein @ 1024x768

Powered by the Quake 3 Engine, like Jedi Knight 2, it is heavily modified. We used the Checkpoint demo, which is loaded with explosions and multiplayer action.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein @ 1280x1024

As with our past Radeon and FX reviews, the FX seems to always be outmatched by comparible Radeon hardware. It isn't really close here, as we can see the clear winner.

Splinter Cell

New to our test bench is UbiSoft's 3rd person action game, Splinter Cell. We used the Beyond3D demo, and ran the cards through the gamut.

Splinter Cell @ 1024, Max Detail

Well, I guess we know which is the stronger mid-range card for Splinter Cell. Even at 1280x1024, the dip for the FIC A96P isn't that bad.

Overclocking

Just like all the other video cards we get our paws on, it's time for the overclocking tests.

Out of the box, the card ticks in at 398.25/303.75 core and memory (a slight underclock on the 400 core and slight overclock on the 300 memory). This was according to the Rage3D Tweak. by adjusting the sliders, and testing for stability...

... we managed to hit a maximum overclock of 454/383 which is really good, considering the card's default speed. However, considering the improvement in our performance...

Splinter Cell @ 1280, Max Detail

Not much big of a difference, is there? Is it really important to gain around 4 fps and maybe take the risk of blowing up your card? Considering the benchmarks taken today, I'm pretty sure the card demonstrates that there is no reason to overclock this card, especially with the meagre OC performance, but if you like to live on the edge, go for it.

3D Image Quality

Framerates don't mean anything if the card displays a lousy picture. Thankfully, many cards released int he last year are almost on equal footing.

FIC No AA/AF	XFX No AA/AF	FIC 4xAA/8xAF	XFX 4xAA/8xAF

3D image quality is pretty good; a little bit smoother than the 5600... not by much but you can see the difference.

2D Quality

As for the 2d Quality, the result is pretty much the same but we see a little improvement in the 9600 Pro in compared to the 5600 Ultra. Tests are subjective, so this is simply my opinion.

Final Words

LAN gamers looking for good speed (albeit at lower resolutions), and a card that is cheap enough for you to still be able to buy parts to mod your rig, I would say this is a great choice. With good image quality, texture and performance this card makes this a good choice for the serious gamers without serious cash. Dual monitor support this is very nice, and like I said before, two primary displays are really great, and I'm sure that all the multimedia followers will love it.

If you are looking to play games like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 this card will probably do the trick but don't expect much. Seriously, we still say Doom will need high-end card to play it as developers meant it, but it should still be playable at a lower resolution... I hope.

There is nothing really wrong with the card, but I suppose if there is anything to complain about, it is the lack of software extras, and small extras, like ramsinks. Not so much for cooling mind you, but more to just distinguish it from other cards.

FIC have themselves a real nice product in the A96P Radeon 9600 Pro. Granted, the 9600 Pro is not the fastest card on the market, but it is also not the most expensive. Performance was excellent, despite the so-so overclocking performance.

Pros: Really good price, excellent image quality, dual primary display, and good o/c capabilities.

Cons: Small bundle, the card is nice looking but not fancy.

Bottom Line: This card is certainly the best buy on the market right now. More so than the 9800? Yes, certainly if you compare the price to the performance. If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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