Radeon 9800 XT

The Radeon 9800 XT is based on the R360 core, which is the new core replacing the R350 core (which was what the Radeon 9800 was based on). The first major difference between the new card and the old card is the onboard thermal diode. Finally the Radeon series is also capable of continually adjusting its fan speed depending on the application, similar to what the GeForce FX series does.

However, unlike the GeForce FX 5900 series, the Radeon 9800 XT maintains performance without needing extravagant cooling, as it is still a single-slot solution. This is good news as it reduces the amount of hassle when wondering whether or not it will affect other motherboard components. Editor's Note: ATI told us that although the 9800 XT is stilla single slot solution, the board ended up being nearly an inch longer in length in order to accomodate the new circuitry and components. It will still be far shorter than the Nvidia FX5900 cards(review here). ATI also touts the fact that even their reference designs will feature a dual speed, low noise heatsink fan solution that will use COPPER heatsinks covering BOTH SIDES of the board - that's right, even the ATI brand cooler will use cooling on RAM for both sides of the board.

The Radeon 9800 XT will come with a core clock of 412 mhz, compared to the 380 on the Radeon 9800 Pro. It will also come with 256 megabytes of RAM running at 712 mhz on a 256-bit memory bus, which is marginally higher than 680 mhz on the Radeon 9800 Pro. Although these increases look marginal, ATi has stated that the XT is more overclockable. Whether this is true or not is up in the air for now.

The 9800 XT will start shipping in October for a MSRP of $499.

Below we have a few benchmark screens released by ATi comparing it to the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. Do note where these benchmarks came from though, not that I’m hinting at any sort of possible bias is shown here.