ATI delivers a new set of video cards that aren't that much faster than their predecessors, but the pack-in is a killer.
A year ago, ATI changed the face of video cards when it surprised everyone with the super-powerful Radeon 9700 Pro. Since then, we've seen the entire line get revamped, and NVIDIA has been in the awkward position of playing catch-up. The Radeon 9800 released earlier this year was basically a small upgrade to the 9700 series designed to compete well with the GeForceFX 5900, and the latest card, the Radeon 9800 XT is merely a speed bump from its predecessor. Throw in what is perhaps the most anticipated game in a decade, though, and it certainly sweetens the pot. Yes, both the Radeon 9800 XT and 9600 XT (its less powerful brother) offer purchasers a free copy of Half-Life 2 when the game ships.
This little tidbit about the upcoming Catalyst 3.8 drivers regarding overclocking:
ATI has an answer in its new drivers that should be available on October 8th. Instead of tinkering with the BIOS or registry, the next version of the Catalyst drivers will do what is called dynamic overclocking on both Radeon XT boards (but not older boards). Since both cards have variable speed fans and thermal monitors built in, software can be used to bump up the memory and core clock speeds while adjusting the fan to cool more (spin faster) as necessary. If it gets dangerously hot, the software will dynamically slow the memory and core speeds until it finds the "sweet spot."
By Kevin Rice
Article Here Source: GameSpy
