ASUS Radeon 9600XT
 *1200x981; 234KbPackage bundle:
We found the following contents in the very smart box bearing a logo and an image designed especially for the new series of ASUS video cards built on ATI chips:
- The graphics board itself;
- a VIVO splitter adapter;
- a DVI-to-D-Sub adapter;
- 5 CDs with software and drivers;
- 3 CDs with games and demo versions of new games.
Note the smart way the CDs are "packaged". They are shipped not in paper pouches, and even in not in small boxes, but in a special orange container accommodating as many as 12 CDs. Quite an interesting and most importantly a smart trick. Asus has always been notable among the mass of retail suppliers of boards built on NVIDIA chips and now those on ATI chips for smart ideas, which the vast majority of partnering manufacturers have lacked so much.
Design and layout:
The first what catches your eye is the bright orange color of the PCB instead of the already customary red PCB typical of ATI. Clearly, Asus couldn't help missing the chance of rising above at that =).
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| *1200x856; 238 Kb |
*1200x856; 364 Kb |
The board offers 128 Mb of DDR memory, 2x/4x/8x AGP, and a standard set of output connectors: one analogous, one digital, and one TV-OUT. To implement VIVO potentials, the chip offers a proprietary ATI's Rage Theater chip traditional for all ATI boards.
Evidently, Asus decided not to come up with innovations, so didn't install third-party VIVO chips. It's hard to assume if the company proceeded from the chip cost considerations or if it was caused by the functioning of the chips themselves. But anyway in the end we get an ATI Rage Theater chip onboard. The review of VIVO functionalities goes beyond the scope of this article, so we leave out the issue. The Anpec's two-phase SC1175CSW chip is used as a voltage regulator.
The video card is equipped with 128 MB DDR memory packaged in 8 chips (4 chips on each of the sides - front and rear) within the advanced BGA packaging, with the 128-bit memory bus. The memory is produced by Samsung (K4D263238E-GC2A), offers a 2.8 ns access time, which is equivalent to approximately 350 MHz of memory operation (700 MHz), but the memory runs at its intended frequency 300 MHz (600 MHz). That is, there is a small overclocking margin for the memory.
Also note that Asus is faithful to its traditions and installs Samsung memory both on video cards built on ATI chips and on those built on NVIDIA chips. The graphic chip also runs at 500 MHz as per the specifications.
The cooling is implemented in an interesting enough way. The average-size fan is installed on a solid radiator that covers both the chip itself and memory chips positioned on the front side of the PCB. Cooling of the memory chips located on the reverse side of the PCB is not provided. Therefore, the efficiency of the whole big radiator covering the chips of the PCB front side is reduced to zero. However, it can give you aesthetic pleasure - the engraved Asus emblem covering 2 last memory chips on the front side of the PCB looks presentable enough. The efficiency of the fan blowing about the chip arouses no doubts; but for the successful overclocking the best option would be use of additional cooling that blows primarily about the memory chips of the radiator.
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VGA Card:
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