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Video Card: AIW 9600 Pro Review :: Features
RV350 is ATI's internal codename for the AIW 9600 Pro's VPU core. While it shares many of the features of the 9700 Pro/9800 Pro, there are some important differences. As I haven't reviewed a RADEON 9600 Pro or a 9600 of any kind, I decided to include a brief feature set overview in this review. First thing of note, is the AIW RADEON 9600 has 4 pixel pipelines. This compares with the 8 found on most of the RADEON 9700/9800 series of cards (RADEON 9800SE is a special case) each with 1 texture unit apiece. With a clock speed of 400 MHz this gives a theoretical maximum fill rate of 1.6 Gigapixels per second or about 64% of the 9700 Pro. The AIW 9600 fully supports the DirectX 9.0 Pixel and Vertex Shader 2.0 specification. ATI calls their shader technology Smartshader 2.1 on the 9600 Pro. Pixel Shaders are small programs performed on the rendered pixels. Uses of pixel shaders include reflective shiny water (Morrowind, NeverWinter Nights etc.), reflective shiny armor, and other effects. The DirectX 9 pixel shader 2.0 specification gives requires the video card to perform at least 96 shader instructions in a single pass. The 9600 Pro has the ability to do 160 pixel shader instructions in a pass, thus exceeding the specification. Vertex Shaders are similar in effect to pixel shaders, except they're performed on vertices. Effects that can be done with vertex shaders include displacement mapping, deformation (imagine the water rippling in Morrowind this is done using the vertex shaders of the video card, realistic fur (Wolfman, Chimp demo), clothing facial animation and more. The AIW 9600 Pro has the same vertex shader capabilities as the 9700/9800 Pro i.e. 65,000 instructions via loops and subroutines. The 9600 Pro has the ability to dramatically increase the image quality of the games it plays, just like it's bigger brothers. ATI loops these technologies together and names them Smooth Vision 2.1. The first component of Smooth Vision is FSAA. The 9600 Pro is capable of doing 6x FSAA. ATI uses an interesting pattern which gives good coverage generally of angles and jaggies when FSAA is applied. The second component is AF (anisotropic filtering). The AIW 9600 Pro is capable of 16x AF in either Bilinear or Trilinear mode. Anisotropic filtering helps textures look better. The Bundle
ATI traditionally includes an extremely generous software bundle with their AIW cards, something they don't traditionally do with their regular (non-AIW) cards. The AIW 9600 Pro is no exception to this. With a $249 MSRP, the AIW 9600 Pro comes with additions and software that makes up for the cost of the card virtually by itself. First of all and most important is Half Life2. HL2 is the most anticipated game of the year. Unfortunately, it's become apparent that Valve, the game's designers won't release it in time for Christmas. It's not my intention to rehash the whole Source Code theft in this venue, but it's important to note that if you expect to play the game this year, try not to be disappointed when it's not. However, as a addition to the bundle, HL2 makes a $50 value, whether today or 6 months from today. In addition, ATI includes Pinnacle Studio 8- ATI version. This software, when combined with the AIW 9600 Pro's video recording/playback capabilities makes for easy editing of recorded videos. After you capture your video footage you can use the professional editing features like scene transitions, title effects, and fast/slow motion to create compelling video content. Muvee's AUTOPRODUCER is a software that allows you to perform several effects on videos. The Remote Wonder has been included with every ATI card since the AIW 8500 in 2001. It's a radio frequency remote control with the ability to control everything about ATI's TV features. ATI has updated their Remote Wonder to Remote Wonder II. In order to receive this new remote, however, you have to log on to a site and pay shipping and handling and taxes for that remote. The Remote Wonder II is not currently available.
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