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videian28 · Jun 21, 2004, 03:59 PM

I have yet to see a review anywhere of the 9600XT on a mac, but I have found one for PC's

maybe this will give a bit of insight

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardwar...211_3341731__1

eddiecatflap · Jun 22, 2004, 09:24 AM

the 9600 looks to be a pretty good card , i think the 9800 is overkill unless you're heavily into games

videian28 · Jun 22, 2004, 10:52 AM

I am heavily into games, but not $400 extra heavy lol

I will run this card for till the 9800 comes down from it's astronomical levels

Dimitri · Jun 22, 2004, 11:16 AM

Are the 9600's only available as BTO?

lenox · Jun 22, 2004, 11:22 AM

I have a 9600XT in my PC...

It handles all of the newest generation of games just fine - especially when it comes to pixel shading and other newer effects. it can be overclocked (both with the official control panel, to some degree, and third party tools, to a further degree) so that it performs better than a 9700 or 9500, and close to a 9800. of course it screams at older games as well. however, it does have only half the pipelines of the 9800 - so it's not as future-proof...but it's the best card you can get in the "consumer" market...and game makers would be crazy not to assure that their games will work with this card well for years to come.

it's an excellent buy.

videian28 · Jun 22, 2004, 11:44 AM

better than a 9700? nice, hope that can hold true for the mac version...but something tells me there will be no overclockability option

lenox · Jun 22, 2004, 11:51 AM

the XT in the name means it's overclockable, officially. If ati didn't want mac users to overclock their cards, they'd just release the 9600 and 9600 pro or something.

MaxPower2k3 · Jun 22, 2004, 12:21 PM

I wish they'd bring the 9700 Pro to the Mac side. For not much more than the 9600Pro (<$50 on the PC side) you get so much more performance in many games (sometimes almost twice as much). The 9600 is the top of their mid-level cards, and the 9700 is the bottom of their high-end cards, so they have the biggest performance discrepancy of any of the other model transitions. I was planning on getting a 9600Pro (Sapphire makes a fanless one... a plus since i'll be using this computer as an HTPC) but I ended up going for the 9700 Pro because the difference was just too great to pass up.

Cadaver · Jun 22, 2004, 08:27 PM

Originally posted by lenox:
the XT in the name means it's overclockable, officially. If ati didn't want mac users to overclock their cards, they'd just release the 9600 and 9600 pro or something.

I don't think ATI officially supports overclocking any card of theirs. The XT does not indicate overclockability; it indicates a model that runs faster than the non-pro or Pro versions. There is no overclock utility in ATI's Catalyst drivers for the PC, and definitely none for the Mac.

And Apple did release the 9600 Pro in the last revision of the G5.

Dimitri · Jun 23, 2004, 03:33 PM

Originally posted by Dimitri:
Are the 9600's only available as BTO?

videian28 · Jun 23, 2004, 03:47 PM

they are bto on everything but the dual 2.5

Dimitri · Jun 23, 2004, 05:12 PM

so they're not available aftermarket?

kupan787 · Jun 23, 2004, 05:26 PM

Originally posted by Cadaver:
I don't think ATI officially supports overclocking any card of theirs.

Well on the PC side they do. It is called Overdrive, and is available in the ATI control panel (part of the Catalyst drivers). Basicly the XT model has a built in temperature sensor, and will overclock your card to a point. If it notices things getting to hot, it automatically steps down. All you need to do is check a box to turn on the feature.

olePigeon · Jun 23, 2004, 05:53 PM

How will Doom III handle it?

I remember when they first demoed Doom III on a gigabit PowerMac with a GeForce 3. Heh. How long ago was that?

galarneau · Jun 23, 2004, 08:25 PM

Anyone actually see one of the new 9600XT's yet?

Are they passively cooled like the old 9600Pro?

I like a quiet machine.

SafariX · Jun 23, 2004, 08:46 PM

Originally posted by galarneau:
Anyone actually see one of the new 9600XT's yet?

Are they passively cooled like the old 9600Pro?

I like a quiet machine.

I have a 2.0 / 9600xt, and I dont see a fan on it.

D'Espice · Jun 24, 2004, 06:44 AM

Originally posted by lenox:
the XT in the name means it's overclockable, officially. If ati didn't want mac users to overclock their cards, they'd just release the 9600 and 9600 pro or something.

That's not correct. The XT in the name means that it runs slightly faster than the non-XT versions like the Pro or the non-Pro-non-XT. It means that its memory and its GPU is running at a slightly higher clock speed, that's all.

Something curious however is that nVidia also has XT versions of their video cards, howerver they're slower than the normal versions and the Pro/Ultra/Giga/Whatever.

lenox · Jun 25, 2004, 12:50 PM

Originally posted by Cadaver:
I don't think ATI officially supports overclocking any card of theirs. The XT does not indicate overclockability; it indicates a model that runs faster than the non-pro or Pro versions. There is no overclock utility in ATI's Catalyst drivers for the PC, and definitely none for the Mac.

That's funny. ATI's official catalyst control panel for PC allows you to set "overdrive" (i think that's the name...whatever it is, it's their name for dynamic overclocking) if you have an XT card. Like I said, I bought a 9600xt for my pc. One of the selling points of the card, for me, was the officially-sanctioned overclocking.