Graphics Radeon 9500 non-pro vs Radeon 9600XT

This may not be interesting to anyone and I may be just typing to occupy my time, but I thought that someone out there may be wondering if it's worth upgrading from a 9500np to the 9600XT. So I figured I'd give you an idea of how they have compared for me.

Background:
I am building a new machine for a friend of mine. He wants a decently performing machine without the performance cost. What we decided on was a Pentium4 2.8C GHz w/ 800MHz FSB, an Abit IS7 motherboard, and Corsair PC-3200 DDR RAM (2x256MB). The only thing he didn't have was the video card. So we started looking. He didn't want to spend the money on a high priced card, so I told him I would sell him 9500np for a bargain. He agreed and I upgraded.

The system:
So, the system that I am testing this in is as follows:
MSI K7N2 Delta-L
Barton 2500+ @ stock
1 GB Crucial PC-3200 @ 333MHz (2 x 166MHz)
Then of course the video cards. BTW, I am testing with the Catalyst 4.1 drivers.

The reason the ram is underclocked, is becuase for now I am running the CPU at stock. Performance is better when you run the ram in synch with the CPU. Plus, I have the added bonus of being able to tighten up the timings on my ram. I'm running at 2-2-2-5 (in BIOS...in CPU-Z it says it's 2.5-2-2-5).

What I've tested:
So here is what I have tested. I ran the 9500 at stock speeds. Then I ran the 9500 with a slight overclock, 325/305. Then I ran the 9600XT at stock. I have not overclocked the 9600XT...sheesh...I just got it last night! By the way, my 9500 will not soft-mod.

I tested using Aquamark3 and 3dMark2001SE. I have not downloaded 3dMark03 yet. And if I do I won't be able to test the 9500 anyway.

What I've found:
So here were the results so far.

Radeon 9500np @ stock (this is from memory...I forgot to test it last night before I swapped cards):
Aquamark3 ~20000 (maybe a little lower)
3dMark2001 ~10000

Radeon 9500np @ 325/305 (that's the highest I could get the memory to go..gpu could have gone further):
Aquamark3 24835
3dMark2001 12570

Radeon 9600XT @ stock:
Aquamark3 29984
3dMark2001 12318

Conclusions:
So, iteresting. I should be able to easily blow past 30k on AM3 with just a little overclock. I also found it interesting that my 3dMark score would be lower with the 9600XT. But I'm sure that a little overclock will quickly remedy that as well. You can see that even at stock the 9600XT scores 5000 points better than the 9500. That is a pretty decent increase.

I'll also post what the scores are on the P4 when we get it built. Maybe that will give a interesting perspective as well.

 

Everyone's stunned silence is very reassuring that this thread is interesting to everyone.

I finally downloaded 3dMark2003. At stock this system scored 3730. That's about what I expected. I suspect that once I overclock it a bit that score will become more respectable, although no where near what the 9800pros and 5950s will do.

On another note, I tried enabling overdrive in the advanced options. In my opinion, that is a pretty useless feature. It overclocked the card, but by such a conservative amount that it really had very little impact on the card's performance. With overdrive enabled, I got the following scores:
Aquamark3 30386 (@ stock was 29984)
3dMark01 12382 (@ stock was 12382)

So, I suppose the overdrive functionality does just what it claims to do...and nothing extra. So for my next adventure, a little gpu/memory overclocking. Until then...

 

I can't do 9600XT vs non-Xt, but I can do GeForce 3 Ti500 vs 9600XT...

I shoved some new components in my PC today to give it a temporary kick up the arse until I do a full upgrade later this year.

System specs before new bits:
Asus A7M266 mobo
512Mb Crucial PC2100 DDR
Athlon 1.33Ghz (about 2.75 years old now)
Hercules GeForce3 Ti500 64Mb
and other bits that aren't too important.

The score with that setup was 13,330 Aquamarks (I didn't take note of the detailed scores, sorry)

I then shoved in a Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 256Mb, increased the AGP aperture to 256Mb and turned on Overdrive.
The score with that : 23,352 Aquamarks.

Then I had fun flashing the BIOS on my mobo, swapping processors back and forth, until I got the AthlonXP 2400+ working.
The score with the new CPU nad GPU : 26,175 Aquamarks.

So for about 200 quid I've more or less doubled the performance of my system , with the bulk of the increase coming from the Radeon.

I'm happy, but the system's running significantly warmer now than it was before (not too surprising, really)..

 

Lupine, I'd say that increase was pretty well worth it!

Played around a bit more yesterday. Here's why I say the overdrive feature is of very little value. The Radeon 9600XT runs at 500/600 (300x2) at stock speed. When I enabled the overdrive feature, it shows the gpu go to like 526 or something...I didn't pay that much attention. Anyway, with it enabled I got:
Aquamark3 30386
3dMark01 12382

So I disabled it, opened up RivaTuner, bumped the memory up to 606 (303x2) and left the gpu at 500. With that I got:
Aquamark3 30133 (pretty close to the overdrive score)
3dMark01 12415

That just went right on past the overdrive score on 3dMark.

Anyway, I went ahead and bumped my cpu up a bit. I'm running at 11x200 (2200MHz or 3200+ speed ). With that a mild overclock on the video card, 540/630, and with my RAM running at 400MHz and 3-2-2-11 (at full speed I can't get my cas to show as anything below 3 in CPU-Z. It will boot fine even if set to 2, but never shows a change). Here is what I've gotten so far:
Aquamark3 32910
3dMark01 13755
3dMark03 4049

Everything is stable and running smoothly.

 

I thought so too

Nice.

Personally, I don't overclock. My whole system is running stock (apart from the Overdrive thing, obviously).

ATM, I see no point. I don't expect my system to last more than about another 8 months in its current form, as I'll (hopefully) be doing some major upgrading (new case, mobo, CPU, RAM, HDD's, maybe watercooling loop etc. etc.)

OTOH, if you can and want to overclock every little thing in your system until it's screaming for mercy ( ) go for it. And if you get a fully stable system at the end of it, Hurrah!

I'm obviously not a hard core overclocker

 

I wouldn't say I'm hard core either. I basically want to squeeze as much out of my system as I can safely. Well...relatively safely since there is always a risk to overclocking. I know there is a risk that I could kill components, and I'm not really prepared to actually push things to a point where they die.