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ATi Radeon 9800 Pro

Posted by michael on from the purty-pictures dept.

ATi is bringing out their new card, the Radeon 9800 Pro, and all of the hardware review sites which depend on ATi's generosity for pre-release hardware have released their necessarily favorable reviews. Here's a few: Hothardware.com, Hexus.net, HardOCP.com, Anandtech, Tom's Hardware, Extremetech, PCWorld.

21 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Independent review sites? by JKR · · Score: 4, Insightful
    So, are there any independent review sites out there? How do they get their hands on pre-release hardware? Just how close to payola is the whole thing, anyway?

    Enquiring minds want to know (before they blow ${WEEKS_WAGES} on new toys...)

    Jon.

    1. Re:Independent review sites? by stroudie · · Score: 5, Informative

      For what its worth, the Register also has a review.

      They may not be any more independent, but at least they're honest...

    2. Re:Independent review sites? by UberLord · · Score: 5, Informative

      As an admin for DriverHeaven the only kinda freebies we get for reviewing products is the product itself - usually on loan.

      Payola? Damn - I really wish there was some!

      BTW, here's our ATI 9800 Pro review ;)
      http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/r350/index.htm

    3. Re:Independent review sites? by Zathrus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So, are there any independent review sites out there

      What do you mean by independant? They all take ad revenue now, and often that ad revenue is from either hardware companies or retailers. Most of the reputable ones (AnandTech, Tom's, Sharky's, etc) have guidelines on who they will and will not accept ads from - in the case of retailers they usually have to have a good rating.

      How do they get their hands on pre-release hardware

      The hardware companies aren't freaking stupid. It's called marketing, and the marketing departments make sure that the top reviewers get the hardware ahead of time. Sure, you could send them something the day it's out, but that hurts the marketing push. Especially since it can take a couple weeks to do some reviews. And you want to make sure that if the reviewer has a problem they can get help.

      At least it's better than the old print reviews, where they would get the hardware before release and then print a couple months after release -- since print cycles are so freaking long (especially for monthly magazines).

      Just how close to payola is the whole thing, anyway?

      Most reviewers have to return the hardware afterwards. Of course, there's always swag, and they get tons of it. From everyone. Occasionally they'll get to keep the hardware, and upon occasion the big sites will have charity auctions or giveaways for random stuff (although that's often just another marketing gimick - the site is donated hardware specifically for the purpose of giving it away).

      If you want a "truely" independant site that gets no stuff from anyone, then go look for the chintzy sites that review stuff weeks to years after it's out. You know... the sites that you think suck and are horribly outdated.

      If you want to know what you should buy then read the reviews from a couple of the top sites, and then go scan some forums. The forums are by average geeks and will give a wonderfully negative review of pretty much any product.

  2. Another Review by MjDascombe · · Score: 5, Informative

    As if you didn't have enough - This one is quite good.

  3. Anandtech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Anandtech's article shows interesting effects when underclocking the 9800 to same values of 9700. Performance is equal without AA or Anisotropic filtering, but with filtering 9800 is 10 to 30% faster.

  4. What were you expecting? by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...and all of the hardware review sites which depend on ATi's generosity for pre-release hardware have released their necessarily favorable reviews.

    Err, what were you expecting? If you give a kid a new toy that's faster, shinier and has more bells and whistles than his old one then he's going to be impressed and say that it's faster, shinier and has more bells and whistles than the old one.

    I have no doubt that if nVidia, ATi, Matrox or whoever released a card that stank the place right up then these guys would write about it - what do you think they'd do, michael, fake benchmark results?

    Do these cards represent good value for money? No, not unless you have money to burn. Are they interesting to gamers? Yes, because what's in a $600 graphics card today is what'll be in a $200 one in a few months time.

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
    1. Re:What were you expecting? by NerdSlayer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And what's in a $200 graphics card after a few months will be in a $50 graphics card in a few more months, at which point I'll buy one.

      Why does this get modded up? That's great that you don't have much interest in 3d gaming and/or you don't feel the need to buy the latest and greatest. Lots of people have different interests in different things. If the latest video card doesn't interest you, move on.

      However, just because you're not throwing down $400 for a new graphics card, you're no saint. You didn't save any whales, the world hasn't been made a better place. People need to buy the latest and greatest shit so that the technology can eventually filter down to you. That's how it works.

      Letting the world know you don't care to spend money on a top dollar video card is about as insightful as me saying how I'm not going to smoke crack and kill hookers all day today.

  5. Hey Michael... by gpinzone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm an NVidia fan, too. However, we can do without your digs to the reviewers. So much for unbiased journalism.

    1. Re:Hey Michael... by gpinzone · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think it's really fair to hold a simple slashdot story submission up to the standards of professional journalistic integrity.

      I think it's extremely fair, especially since the submission came from an editor, not an anonymous source.

      It is fair, however, to question the bias of hardware reviewers who recieve free pre-releases to play with and depend on those pre-releases to provide the reviews which earn them a living.
      There's no evidence that these reviews were biased in any way. There is only supposition of guilt, which is preposterous, because these same reviewers have the same relationship with ATI's competition.

  6. For ATI developers: Linux support of R200 Models by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hope to bring to the attention of ATI developers, if they are reading, that it would be nice to release official driver support for the R200 models (Radeon, Radeon 7500 etc) and only the latest 8000+ models.

    These cards are partly supported by the DRI project on dri.sourceforge.net since they lack important features as texture compression making them useless for games as DoomIII.

    Thanks.

    ps. Or at least, please help the DRI guys complete the great job.

  7. Not again!!! by SpanishInquisition · · Score: 5, Funny

    *throws 500$ video card in garbage*

    --
    Je t'aime Stéphanie
  8. Re:WTF by mcpkaaos · · Score: 4, Funny

    Good thing they gave you a f@#$c#ing receipt. Just take it back. I'd strongly recommend you leave the "f@#$c#ing" out of your reason for the return, however. Unless, of course, you bought it at Fry's. :)

    mcp:kaaos

    --
    It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
  9. ahem by lingqi · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Why does Nvidia's demo with vid-card shows you this and this, but ATI shows you this? I think we should buy Nvidia based on their sense of ascthetics alone.

    seriously though - was it like last week 9700PRO became available? what's up with this break-neck card-releasing? I didn't think it was christmas yet...

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

  10. Keep it up ATi. by 13Echo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Keep it up, ATi. Competition is good. I'm really lovin' what I see in the 9X00 series. Keep hammering on improving those Linux drivers while you're at it, because nVidia still has the edge on non-Windows platforms. The day that you release Linux drivers that are on par with those under Windows (as PowerVR and nVidia have done) is the day that I fork out $400 for your car. Rest assured that I will, as long as you back the product.

  11. More ati = more gooder by Vodak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm glad to see Ati released another video card. the more ati competes the less likly NVidia will become a company likly Microsoft.

    1. Re:More ati = more gooder by NerdSlayer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm glad to see Ati released another video card. the more ati competes the less likly NVidia will become a company likly Microsoft.

      Yay. And then in two years, ATI will be the big scary company, Nvidia will be the underdog, and we can all applaud Nvidia for providing ATI with some competition. The cycle will complete itself, ad nauseum.

      I'm starting to think that Slashdot readers are actually communists; nobody's allowed to root for the big guy (who presumably got bigger because of the better products).

  12. a nice change by archen · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is what a really wanted to hear:

    (from the Register)
    "Effectively a 0.13 micron version of the four-pipeline 9500 Pro, the new chip will run both faster and cooler than its predecessor"

    Yes cooler... COOLER.
    Not so freaking hot you need to strap a briggs&stratton lawn mower engine up to a card to power the fan to cool the f'ing thing. Are you listening Nvidia?!

  13. Cut the editorializing crap please by dnadig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All of these sites do decent work, I read them daily, and they all PILE ON when something is released that is a POS. Whatever axe you have to grind, keep it to yourself or back it up please.

    I have BOTH bleeding edge cards right now, and unfortunately for NVDA, it's just plain "true" that the Radeon's are top dog at the moment. If you don't believe them, run your own benchmarks.

  14. GeForce FX taught nVidia a good lesson by Morgaine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, nVidia fans (like myself too) may be severely disappointed that the GeForce FX turned out to be an almost total turkey because of noise, power consumption, and barely adequate basic performance, but it's actually pretty healthy that ATI is now back in the lead.

    Hopefully nVidia will recognize that it made a dreadful mistake way back at design and specification time on the FX, and learn from it. If it doesn't then it's commercially dead, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Within the company, this probably requires booting out some managers and pressing some engineers' noses onto red-hot heatsinks.

    I agree, there's no need to bash the reviewers. Everyone knows that they try to butter up the hardware suppliers, but they still deliver fairly objective reviews, so there's no real problem.

    --
    "The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
  15. Re:For ATI developers: Linux support of R200 Model by Elendil · · Score: 4, Informative

    From XFree86 4.3.0 release notes:

    2.1. Video Driver Enhancements

    * ATI Radeon 9x00 2D support added, and 3D support added for the Radeon 8500, 9000, 9100, and M9. The 3D support for the Radeon now includes hardware TCL.

    Looks like pretty good support to me... I really prefer that to a binary-only driver such as NVidia's.