J
J.Clarke
How does the Radeon 9600 compare to an 8500DV in terms of video
performance?
In a sense that's apples to oranges--you're comparing a "regular" ATI
board with an "All-in-wonder". If you're asking how an ordinary 9600
compares in frame rates and whatnot to the 8500, it's a good deal
faster--the 8500 was a little behind the curve even when it was new. If
you're asking about the image quality, it should be a wash--the 8500
doesn't have a lot of room for improvement in that regard. If you're
asking about the TV features of the 9600 AIW vs the 8500DV, it's a mixed
bag--the 9600 would have a better tuner(_anything_ is better than the
tuner on the 8500DV), but it gives up the DVI out in order to get
support for two analog RGB monitors--the 9600 also uses a newer version
of the Rage Theater chip which provides additional hardware assistance
for MPEG encoding, reducing the workload on the CPU a bit.