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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 , pitting it against the FX5600 Ultra to see which one offers the most bang for your buck.
Specifications
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The FIC A96P Radeon 9600 Pro
FIC stays low key with their box design, sticking with primary colours and a nice CGI image. The rear of the box displays some of the features outlined in the specifications above. Packaging style is similar to ATI's older packaging where there are two cardboard levels inside, with the upper level holding the card, and the lower level contains the accessories.
You are supplied a user manual, and driver CD, as well as a variety of cables and a DVI-to-VGA adapter. Oddly, no games are provided, but considering the price point, we're not going to really complain since most bundled games aren't very good.
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.
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