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Gigabyte GV-R96X128D 9600 XT Review - PAGE 6

Terren Tong - Wednesday, January 14th, 2004 Like +my favourites

Call of Duty

One our favorite shooters in the office right now featuring intense WW2 action. Look for Call of Duty in the 5900 series of cards- Call of Duty is Nvidia's answer to ATI's Half-Life 2 coup.

The higher clock rate of the 5700 really helps it push the framerates in this game. The extra texturing units on the 5900 do not seem to help. The R96XT tends to lag behind a bit and manages to end up above 30 FPS even at 1600x1200

Driver problems make Baby Jesus cry. Both the 5700 and the 5900 crap out at 1600x1200. Textures would get corrupted and the frame rate would drop to about 1 FPS. The R96XT is playable at 1024 but gets too slow at 1280. The Nvidia cards are right on the magic 30 FPS cusp between playable and the official Blair Witch Project Sanitary Bag.

Jedi Academy

Our second Quake3 engine based shooter is Jedi Academy. And Baby Jesus is still crying. But this time it is over the 9600's poor performance. The Catalyst 3.9 drivers were supposed to have resolved issues with Jedi Academy and scores have improved since the Catalyst 3.8 but performance is still way below what it should be.

next: Halo & UT2k3 »

« Aquamark 03 & Commanche 4

send article newsletter article comments (14)

Article Index

1.	Introduction
2.	The Card
3.	The Contents & Bundle
4.	Test Setup
5.	Aquamark 03 & Commanche 4
6.	Call of Duty & Jedi Academy
7.	Halo & UT2k3
8.	Tomb Raider & X2 Rolling Demo
9.	Overclocking, Comments & Conclusions

Comments

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0 thumbs! ^

nthony Jan 16, 04

I purchased my card from newegg and I did not recieve a coupon for Half-Life 2. One person who wrote a review for it on newegg said he didn't recieve his either. I emailed Gigabyte and am waiting for a response. The boxes for these cards are not sealed, they just have a flap that folds in so I guess it's possible an employee or something at newegg could have wanted some free coupons.

0 thumbs! ^

nthony Jan 16, 04

I got a reply from Gigabyte, USA.

Mr. XXXXXXX,

At press time, it was announced that HL2 would be included with Gigabyte's Radeon 9600XT line of graphics cards. However, at official release the HL2 coupon will only be included with our Radeon 9800XT series, and not 9600XT series.

0 thumbs! ^

Ace Jan 17, 04

thanks for the heads up. gigabyte has 2 9600 XT's listed on their site, one with 4 games listed and one with 3. We'll try to get in contact with them and see what the deal is.

0 thumbs! ^

eric266 Jan 17, 04

Hmm, the card i've been waiting on for a while, simply because of the blue pcb, now may not come with HL2? Good job Gigabyte...

0 thumbs! ^

eric266 Jan 17, 04

Hopefully this gets straightened out. They already have a great software bundle with this card, but I'd take HL2 over the other 3 games any day.

0 thumbs! ^

raheel Jan 17, 04

i have bought 9600pro from local shop here in pakistan and it has blue led with same samsung 2.8ns memory it can go at 530mhz!! with no problem and memory at 340 max. i guess its xt packed in pro box

0 thumbs! ^

nthony Jan 19, 04

I just noticed the box I recieved. There is a sticker that says "128MB DDR" placed over where the "Free Half-Life 2 game" image is on the box. I feel so cheated. I am definitely returning this.

0 thumbs! ^

Ace Jan 23, 04

some bad news. looks like ALL 9600 XTs manufactured after December 8th will NOT include Half-Life 2.

Power Color News

0 thumbs! ^

Ace Jan 23, 04

quote raheel
i have bought 9600pro from local shop here in pakistan and it has blue led with same samsung 2.8ns memory it can go at 530mhz!! with no problem and memory at 340 max. i guess its xt packed in pro box

that's pretty awesome

is gigabyte big over in pakistan?

0 thumbs! ^

RobbedofHL2 Jan 27, 04

So Ace, by All 9600 XT's you mean even the ATI's card with "Free HL2" written all over the box doesn't even come with it? Cause my friend just last week bought the gigabyte card from newegg expecting a coupon, but of course didn't get one. But I'm still considering buying one and am wondering If I can get the coupon with another make of the card, like the powercolor card, which seems to be offering the coupon out of their own pocket.
Thanks

0 thumbs! ^

Ace Jan 27, 04

i think it depends on the manufacturer and whether or not they chose to opt in. it's a disappointing situation for sure. ati branded cards should still offer it but the best bet would be contact newegg or keep an eye out on their forums about what other users are saying. we'll try to compile a list of what each manufacturing is doing with regards to this situation

0 thumbs! ^

Chucho Jan 30, 04

Do anyone have a question or comment other than the HL2 coupon??? Is this card worth it or not???

0 thumbs! ^

Ace Jan 30, 04

on newegg this card is 150$, the cheapest of the 9600XTs. if you are in the market for an ATI card that is steal. if you can afford to spend a little more i would suggest looking at the 5900 NU/SE/XT

0 thumbs! ^

Redemption Jan 30, 04

If you are getting a 9600XT card and are wondering about the Half-Life 2 bundle status, I recommend you check out the chart here to see whether your manufacturer is still offering the bundle:

http://www.tweakfactor.com/articles/video/hl2mia/


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