What interfaces does the radeon 9200 support? OpenGL gaming tests


Connect3D RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB, Connect3D RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB, Connect3D RADEON 9600 128MB, Connect3D RADEON 9200 128MB

Summer is coming to an end, top 3D accelerators have reached the peak of their sales... But do you like the fact that ATI and NVIDIA are going to announce something new in September-October? One can only sympathize with the unfortunate video card manufacturers... However, users are also not in the best position, especially those who just bought a super-expensive accelerator at an exorbitant price. And not only High-End, because new products from the Middle-End class will also be announced.

But this is all in the future, but for now we continue to look at the latest generation video cards. The most popular from the ATI sector are RADEON 9500 (already becoming a thing of the past), RADEON 9600 (new), RADEON 9800 (top product). And of course, low-end RADEON 9200, although it does not support DirectX 9.0. All the details about what each of these products are are in our reviews:

Theoretical and analytical materials and reviews of video cards, which discuss the functional features of the ATI RADEON 9500/9700/9800 GPU

  • Analytical material on the features of the RADEON 9700 architecture and Microsoft DirectX 9.0
  • Review of Gigabyte MAYA II R9700Pro 128MB performance on the new bench based on Pentium 4 2.53 GHz, as well as competition with the new 40.41 driver from NVIDIA
  • Review of Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro 128MB performance of the new CATALYST 2.3 driver in 3DMark2001 SE, Unreal Tournament 2003 benchmarks DEMO final release
  • Review of PowerColor Evil Commando2 RADEON 9700 Pro 128MB continued study of the performance of the new CATALYST 2.3 driver based on game tests, issues of 3D graphics quality
  • Extreme overclocking of Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro based on ATI RADEON 9700 Pro
  • Sapphire Atlantis RADEON 9500 128MB and testing video cards in DOOM III v.0.02
  • Review of Gigabyte MAYA II RADEON 9500 PRO and Hercules 3D Prophet 9500 PRO more detailed study of anisotropic filtering in the RADEON 9700
  • Review of RADEON 7500, 8500, 9000/Pro, 9700 Pro from Sapphire Technology, anisotropy quality issues for the RADEON 9700
  • Review of HIS Excalibur RADEON 9700 PRO Testing in DirectX 9.0 RC0
  • Summary testing of ATI RADEON 9500 64MB, 9500 128MB, 9500 PRO, 9700 and 9700 PRO in DirectX 9.0: Part 2 Testing in DirectX 9.0 synthetic tests from RightMark 3D
  • Review of Sapphire Atlantis RADEON 9700 and RADEON 9700 PRO Ultimate Edition, version in poetic form
  • Review of video cards based on ATI products manufactured by Connect3D
  • ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB review: Part 1 gaming tests and performance
  • Review of Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 PRO 128MB and Hercules 3D Prophet 7500 128MB, as well as “debriefing” in light of the scandal around 3DMark03
  • Review of Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 PRO 128MB and Hercules 3D Prophet 7500 128MB (one page)
  • Review of video cards based on ATI RADEON 9200/9600/9600PRO/9800PRO manufactured by Sapphire Technologies
  • Review of video cards based on ATI RADEON 9800 PRO from Connect3D, Gigabyte and CP.Technology
  • Review of video cards based on ATI RADEON 9600/9600 PRO from Gigabyte, Hercules and Sapphire
  • Review of Sapphire Atlantis RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB Ultimate Edition based on ATI RADEON 9800 PRO - issues with graphics quality in UT2003/Unreal II and other games, fraud with anisotropy

Today we will continue to review the products of Connect3D, a new company for the Russian market, and in particular, 4 video cards based on RADEON 9200/9600/9600 PRO/9800 PRO. We have already talked about this company earlier, I will repeat that this is a European company with headquarters in the UK. But the production base is located in China (as is the case with 95% of companies associated with the IT business). However, Connect3D's production control is at the European level, so you can be confident in the decent quality of the products.

Let's get back to the products.
Boards

Connect3D RADEON 9600 128MB
Connect3D RADEON 9200 128MB

All cards have an AGP x8/x4/x2 interface, 128 MB of DDR SDRAM (except for Connect3D RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB), located in 8 chips on the front and back sides of the PCB (Connect3D RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB 16 chips).
Connect3D RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB
DDR-II memory chips manufactured by Samsung. The access time of memory chips is 2.2 ns, which corresponds to an operating frequency of approximately 454 (908) MHz, while the memory operates at a frequency of 350 (700) MHz. GPU operating frequency 380 MHz. Memory exchange interface 256 bit.
Connect3D RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB
Samsung memory chips. The access time for memory chips is 3.3 ns, which corresponds to an operating frequency of 300 (600) MHz, the memory operates at this frequency. GPU operating frequency 400 MHz.
Connect3D RADEON 9600 128MB, Connect3D RADEON 9200 128MB
Samsung memory chips. The access time of memory chips is 4 ns, which corresponds to an operating frequency of 250 (500) MHz, while the memory operates at a frequency of 200 (400) MHz. GPU operating frequency 325 MHz for RADEON 9600 and 250 MHz for RADEON 9200.

Comparison with reference design, front view
Connect3D RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB
Connect3D RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB
Connect3D RADEON 9600 128MB
Connect3D RADEON 9200 128MB

Comparison with reference design, rear view
Connect3D RADEON 9800 PRO 256MBReference card ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
Connect3D RADEON 9600 PRO 128MBReference card ATI RADEON 9600 PRO
Connect3D RADEON 9600 128MBReference card ATI RADEON 9600
Connect3D RADEON 9200 128MBReference card ATI RADEON 9200

As for the RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB, this is not just a copy of the reference design, but a reference card itself, and, judging by the sticker, it was produced for ATI itself. For now, all such cards are produced at the same factory, and therefore, when buying them from one or another ATI partner, be sure that they will be the same boards.

RADEON 9600 PRO from Connect3D is also made according to the reference design. But the RADEON 9600/9200 is of its own design from Connect3D.

I believe that there is no point in repeatedly considering coolers, which are the same for almost all video cards from ATI partners. I will only note that the RADEON 9600/9200 uses a passive radiator, while the RADEON 9800/9600 PRO has coolers with fans.

Let's look at the packages:


All video cards are supplied in conventional retail packaging (I can’t even bring myself to call THIS normal packaging).


This concludes our consideration of the card features.

Installation and drivers

Test bench configurations:

  • Computer based on Pentium 4 3200 MHz:
    • Intel Pentium 4 3200 MHz processor;
    • DFI LANParty Pro875 (i875P) motherboard;
    • RAM 1024 MB DDR SDRAM;
    • Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB hard drive;
    • operating system Windows XP SP1; DirectX 9.0a;
    • monitors ViewSonic P810 (21") and ViewSonic P817 (21").
    • ATI drivers version 6.368.

VSync is disabled S3TC technology DISABLED in applications.

For comparative analysis, the results of video cards are given:

  • Leadtek WinFast A310 Ultra (GeForce FX 5600 Ultra, frequencies 350/350 (700) MHz, 128 MB, driver 45.20);
  • MSI FX5600-VTD128 (GeForce FX 5600, 325/275 (550) MHz, 128 MB, driver 45.20);
  • ASUS V9950 Ultra (GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, frequencies 450/425 (850) MHz, 256 MB, driver 45.20).

I'll explain why we took the FX 5600 Ultra for comparison at 350 MHz and not 400 MHz. The fact is that there are almost no 400 MHz cards on sale, and where they are, their price is much higher than that of the RADEON 9600 PRO.

Test results

Before briefly assessing the quality in 2D, I will once again clarify that at the moment there is NO complete methodology for objective assessment of this parameter the following reasons:

  1. For almost all modern 3D accelerators, the 2D quality can greatly depend on the specific instance, and it is physically impossible to track all cards;
  2. 2D quality depends not only on the video card, but also on the monitor and connecting cable;
  3. Recently, this parameter has been greatly influenced by combinations: monitor-card, that is, there are monitors that are not “friendly” with certain video cards.

Concerning tested copies, then together with ViewSonic P817 and BNC Bargo cable The boards demonstrated excellent quality in the following resolutions and frequencies:


Test results: comparison of performance of the tested cards

We used the following tools:

  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein (MultiPlayer) (id Software/Activision) OpenGL, multitexturing, ixbt0703-demo, testing settings everything at the highest possible level, S3TC OFF, configurations can be
  • Serious Sam: The Second Encounter v.1.05 (Croteam/GodGames) OpenGL, multitexturing, ixbt0703-demo, testing settings: quality, S3TC OFF
  • Quake3 Arena v.1.17 (id Software/Activision) OpenGL, multitexturing, ixbt0703-demo, testing settings are all at the maximum level: detail level High, texture detail level No. 4, S3TC OFF, the smoothness of curved surfaces is dramatically increased using variables r_subdivisions "1" and r_lodCurveError "30000" (I emphasize that the default r_lodCurveError is "250" !), configurations can be
  • Unreal Tournament 2003 v.2225 (Digital Extreme/Epic Games) Direct3D, Vertex Shaders, Hardware T&L, Dot3, cube texturing, default quality
  • Code Creatures Benchmark Pro (CodeCult) gaming test demonstrating the board's performance in DirectX 8.1, Shaders, HW T&L.
  • Unreal II: The Awakening (Legend Ent./Epic Games) Direct3D, Vertex Shaders, Hardware T&L, Dot3, cube texturing, default quality
  • RightMark 3D v.0.4 (one of the game scenes) DirectX 8.1, Dot3, cube texturing, shadow buffers, vertex and pixel shaders (1.1, 1.4).

If anyone wants to get demo benchmarks that we use, then write to my e-mail.

Quake3 Arena

The RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB lost to its rival GeForce FX 5900 Ultra in almost all complex tests, except for anisotropy comparisons in Quality mode. Without AA and anisotropy, the cards are equal. The picture is approximately the same for the RADEON 9600 PRO and GeForce FX 5600 Ultra.

As for the RADEON 9600/9200, we see a complete loss of these cards.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter

But here the picture is a little different. In the High-End sector there is approximate parity, with a slight lag behind the RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB in heavy modes. In the Midde-End sector, the RADEON 9600 PRO does better, although heavy modes make this card lose too. The RADEON 9600 is more inferior to its opponent in heavy modes.

RADEON 9200 wins in Low-End!

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Multiplayer)

In this test we see almost a victory for the RADEON 9800 PRO in the High-End sector (with the exception of two modes). The RADEON 9600 PRO turned out to be the winner in its sector, just like the RADEON 9600 (with the exception of one mode).

And again a big victory for the RADEON 9200 over the FX 5200.

Code Creatures

Don't forget that in this test there may be some bugs in the NVIDIA drivers, so I won't comment on it. Look at the percentages for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Biostar has expanded its line of Hi-Fi motherboards with the new Hi-Fi A88S3+ model. The new product is designed specifically for the AMD FM2+ platform and is characterized by support for 2- and 4-core processors of the AMD A4/A6/A8/A10/E2 families with thermal packages up to 100 W. The board is equipped with 4 DIMM slots for installing DDR3 RAM modules with a capacity of up to 64 GB and a clock frequency of up to 2600 MHz. Expansion options are provided by two PCI slots, one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot and another PCIe 2.0 x16 slot.

The Biostar Hi-Fi A88S3+ micro-ATX board is based on the A88X chipset. To organize...

The SAPPHIRE Pulse line of graphics adapters will appeal to discerning gamers who want to get the most out of every dollar invested. Therefore, it was very pleasant to see its new representative in the online price list of a large German retailer - SAPPHIRE Pulse Radeon RX Vega 56. Naturally, the next round of mining fever is still making itself felt, so the price of the new product is set at 789 euros.

The parameters of the new device are 282 x 125 mm, and it occupies 3 expansion ports. Inside is an AMD Vega 10 XL GPU with support for 3584 threads...

Recently, a new solution in the development of graphics adapters from the Hong Kong company Zotac was presented. New video adapter models are being released: Zotac GeForce GT 640 Zone Edition with GK107 (Kepler 28 nm) chip and Zotac GeForce GT 630 Zone Edition based on the GF108 (Fermi 40 nm) core. Both models have passive cooling systems. If necessary, you can add a fan to them, and this will allow you to get moderate temperatures of the memory and core, as well as higher frequencies.

GeForce GT 640 graphics card runs on 384 stream processors, with a 128-bit memory bus. On board the device...

A driver is essentially a link between the operating system, that is, software and hardware, that is, physical devices such as video cards, printers, processors, etc. The operating system may contain basic drivers for the most necessary devices - mouse, keyboard, but everything else will require fresh drivers.

How to install the driver?

1. The easiest way, if there is an installation file, then you just need to run it and follow the installer’s instructions.
2.If there is no installer available, and there are only files with the extensions *.inf, *.dll, *.vxt, *.sys, *.drv., then the algorithm of actions should be approximately as follows:

a) First you need to select the icon ( My computer) and right-click on it, select ( Properties).

b) Now go to the tab ( Equipment) and presses the button ( device Manager).

c) Now you need to select the device for which the driver will be installed/updated. On the line with the device, you need to right-click and select ( Properties), or you can simply double-click on it to go to the desired settings.


d) Go to the tab ( Driver), select the button ( Update).

e) In the dialog box that appears, select the item ( No, not this time) and go to ( Further).

f) At this stage there are two options. You can try to install drivers automatically, then the OS itself will try to find drivers suitable for the device and install them, for this we select ( Automatic installation (recommended)) , if the attempt fails, then you need to move on to the second point ( Installation from a specified location) and select ( Further).


g) This menu item implies a choice between searching for a driver on removable media and the option to specify the folder with the driver yourself. Therefore, if you have a disk with drivers, you need to insert the disk into the CD-rom and select the option ( Search on removable media (floppy disks, CDs...)) and go ( Further).

If the driver is found and downloaded on the Internet yourself, then you need to manually specify the path to the folder in which the installation data for the driver is located as follows. Select the item ( Include the following search location:) and go to ( Review), now select the folder with the driver from the list and click on the button ( OK). Now we boldly move on ( Further), if everything is done correctly, the installation of the necessary driver will begin.

When they went on sale in 2004, Radeon 9200 graphics accelerators belonged to the entry-class category. The performance of the ATI Radeon 9200 video card was quite enough to solve the most common tasks at that time. Most computer games were run on this adapter. Today, this video card is inferior in performance to integrated graphics solutions. We will consider its capabilities and technical characteristics in this material.

ATI Radeon 9200: which market segment is the adapter aimed at?

In 2004, the video card market was dominated by two manufacturers. These are Nvidia and ATI companies. If before the release of the Radeon 9XXX series products the leading position was occupied by devices from Nvidia, then after the release of the first Radeon 9XXX graphics adapter the situation changed dramatically. Adapters from the ATI developer took first place in terms of speed and performance. The entire discrete graphics market was divided into three large segments.

  1. Entry-level video cards. These devices were distinguished by minimal performance and a fairly affordable price. Most PC system units of that time contained just such graphic adapters. Manufacturer Nvidia positioned products of the GeForceFX-5200 and GeForce 4MX 4XX series for this part of the market. In turn, the manufacturer ATI opposed them with only one product - Radeon. If we compare these accelerators in terms of productivity, the hero of our today's review was faster than the MX 4XX, but at the same time slightly worse than the FX-5200. However, in this part of the graphics accelerator market there was no fundamental advantage in anyone's favor in terms of speed and performance. The choice was largely based on the personal preferences of users and the cost of the accelerator.
  2. Mid-class graphics accelerators. The following video cards belonged to this category in 2004: from Nvidia – FX-5700 and FX-5600, from ATI – Radeon 9600 and Radeon. The total advantage in this case was already on the side of the manufacturer ATI. The computing power of the Radeon 9600 graphics adapter almost came close to the flagship of that time from Nvidia, the GeForceFX-5900 video card.
  3. The most productive discrete graphics accelerators. This niche was occupied by the previously mentioned FX-5900 and the Radeon 9800 video card from ATI. The latter device demonstrated outstanding performance at that time. It made it possible to solve almost any problem.

This is how the video card market was divided in 2004.

ATI Radeon 9200: technical specifications

The video processor discussed in this review had the following characteristics:

— code designation RV-25;

— semiconductor crystal production technology – 150 nm;

— video chip operating frequency – 250 MHz;

— 4 pixel pipelines, each with 1 TMU unit;

— three slots for installing AGP version 8X.

There was also a more advanced modification of this graphics adapter – Radeon 9200 Pro. The main difference between these devices was that in the second case, the graphics chip frequencies were increased to 275 MHz. The RAM in this case operated at 500 MHz, while for a conventional accelerator this value was 400 MHz. A video chip for a laptop with identical characteristics was also released.

ATI Radeon 9200: video memory

The ATI Radeon 9200 graphics adapter was equipped with a 128-bit RAM bus. In this case, a DDR type video buffer with an operating frequency of 400 MHz was used. The RAM capacity of this accelerator could be 64, 128 or 256 MB. The level of performance in the latter case increased significantly, but the cost of such accelerators was much higher. As a result, such devices were not encountered very often.

ATI Radeon 9200: cooling system

As noted earlier, the ATI Radeon 9200 graphics solution is a middle-class product. The device cannot boast of an impressive thermal package. As a result, such accelerators were often equipped with a passive cooling system consisting of only one compact radiator. Active cooling systems were also often found, which used small-sized coolers. In the first case, it was recommended to use the accelerator only in the nominal operating mode. In the second case, it was possible to overclock. There was a similar version of the video chip for a laptop, which was equipped with an active cooling system.

ATI Radeon 9200: analogues at the time of device release

As noted earlier, the ATI Radeon 9200 video card previously competed with two product families from Nvidia. These were the GeForceFX-5200 and MX 4XX models. The second device was released much earlier than the hero of today's review; moreover, it was significantly inferior in performance to its direct competitor from the ATI manufacturer's camp. When using the GeForceFX-5200, it was possible to achieve a slight increase in performance in some applications. There was parity in most programs.

ATI Radeon 9200: features of setting up drivers for a video card

This graphics solution at the software level complied with DirectX 8.1 A specifications. The ATI Radeon 9200 did not support the later version of this software package - 9.0. But the Windows 7 operating system can fully reveal its capabilities on the latest version of DirectX. In addition, the ATI Radeon 9200 did not have a full set of drivers for this operating system. It was possible to install the latest drivers for Windows XP and make this accelerator work with a newer operating system. The driver installation algorithm in this case was used as follows:

— install drivers for XP on Windows 7 with system administrator rights in XP/2000 compatibility mode. In the same mode we launch the drivers with the same rights. It is important to prevent the system from rebooting.

— move the ati2dvag.dll file from the Windows\System directory to a convenient location, for example, to the “Desktop”. After that, log out of the system and log in again.

— return the ati2dvag.dll file to its original location.

— we reboot the personal computer.

The driver should then function normally.

ATI Radeon 9200: cost

A lot of time has passed since the release of the ATI Radeon 9200 video chip. Even warehouse stocks of devices have long been sold out. Today it is no longer possible to purchase a chip in new condition. But used devices can easily be found on various trading platforms on the Internet. The cost of such solutions ranges from 240 to 500 rubles. It all depends on the condition of the adapter. However, you should not consider such an accelerator as the basis for assembling a new system unit, even if outdated components are used as components. In this regard, it would be more correct to pay attention to the AMD Radeon HD series graphics adapters. They are at least aimed at installation in a more recent PCI-E slot. This will allow you to update the system if necessary.

There are two ways to reduce the performance of a video card - slow down either the graphics chip or the video memory. ATI used both of these methods. As you know, the Radeon 9200 used a 128-bit memory bus. And the Radeon 9200SE has a 64-bit bus, and the memory frequency is reduced from 200 to 166 MHz. Fortunately, this memory is DDR and not SDRAM, so its bandwidth still does not go to zero. Why did ATI do this? In order to simplify the design of the video card: after all, 64 data lines are not 128, so the manufacturer can use a smaller printed circuit board or with fewer layers than in the manufacture of a full-fledged Radeon 9200. And DDR memory, with an access time of 6 ns (for the frequency 166 MHz), then it was the most widespread, since it was used in the manufacture of system memory modules.

The RV280 chip installed on the Radeon 9200SE has not undergone any changes. It still had four rendering pipelines with one texturing unit each, supported vertex and pixel shaders in accordance with the requirements of DirectX 8, had two built-in RAMDAC with a frequency of 400 MHz and a built-in TV codec, supported the AGP 8x interface. For the Radeon 9200SE, chips were selected that did not pass through output control and were capable of operating only at a frequency of 200 MHz, and not 250 MHz, like the Radeon 9200 chips. However, due to the reduced performance of the memory subsystem, the chip did not work at full load, and therefore problems with did not arise from his work.

In terms of frequencies, the Radeon 9200SE was a complete analogue of the GeForce4 MX420.

Characteristics of ATI Radeon 9200 SE

Name Radeon 9200SE
Core RV280
Process technology (µm) 0,15
Transistors (millions) 36
Core frequency 200
Memory operating frequency (DDR) 150-166 (300-333)
Bus and memory type DDR-64/128 bit
Bandwidth (Gb/s) 2,4 - 2,6 / 4,8 - 5,3
Pixel pipelines 4
TMU on conveyor 1
Textures per beat 4
Textures per pass 6
Vertex conveyors 2
Pixel Shaders 1,4
Vertex Shaders 1,1
Fill Rate (Mpix/s) 800
Fill Rate (Mtex/s) 800
DirectX 8,1
Anti-Aliasing (Max) SS - 6x (800*600)
Anisotropic Filtering (Max) 16x
Memory 64 / 128 / 256 MB
Interface AGP 8x
RAMDAC 350 MHz

The full-fledged Radeon 9200 was significantly superior to the full-fledged GeForce4 MX440. The difference is within 5-30%. But with the stripped-down options, not everything is so simple. In a number of games (Giants, Comanche4), the Radeon 9200SE lost to the MX440 with a 64-bit bus. This is due to the fact that these games intensively use the T&L unit, which is not very productive on the Radeon 9000/9200. In other games, the Radeon 9200SE leads; however, its advantage is often quite insignificant. This is due to the fact that both RV280 and NV18 chips are equally limited by memory bandwidth.


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