Gigabyte MAYA II R9700Pro 128MB (ATI RADEON 9700 Pro),
AGP 8x mode

Below we will also touch upon operation of the card with two monitors and with a TV-out. 

The card ships in this box: 

Overclocking

Note that such overclocking was possible earlier but the memory refused to work even at its rated frequency (350 MHz). It seems that it was purposely reduced to 310 (620) MHz. 
 

Note: 

• in course of overclocking you must provide additional cooling, in particular, for the card (first of all, for its memory):

 



• overclocking depends on a definite sample, and you shouldn't generalize the results of one card to all video cards of this mark or series. The overclocking results are not the obligatory characteristics of a video card. 

Test system and drivers

• Pentium 4 based computer (Socket 478): 
• Intel Pentium 4 2530; 
• ASUS P4T533 (i850E); 
• 512 MB 32bit RDRAM PC1066; 
• Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB; 
• Windows XP. 
• Pentium 4 based computer (Socket 478): 
• Intel Pentium 4 2530; 
• ASUS P4S8X (SIS 648); 
• 512 MB DDR SDRAM PC2100; 
• Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB; 
• Windows XP. 

In the tests we used ATI's drivers 6.159 (this driver showed that unification of the drivers for the RADEON would be extended as it supported RADEON 9700 and RADEON 8500. Probably with the software release INF files will be supplemented with data on other chips/cards). VSync was off, texture compression was off, all texture detail settings were set to maximum (High Quality) both in Direct3D and in OpenGL (in the latter case the default detail level is not the highest, that is why we had to make the respective changes). For installation of the OS on the SIS 648 based system we used AGP drivers 1.11 (the latest version for the beginning of September). 

The following cards are taken for comparison: 

• ASUS V8460Ultra (GeForce4 Ti 4600, 300/325 (650) MHz, 128 MB, driver 30.82); 
• Matrox Parhelia (220/275 (550) MHz, 128 MB, driver 2.31); 
• Gigabyte MAYA AP128DG-H RADEON 8500 Deluxe (275/275 (550) MHz, 128 MB, driver 6.118). 

Driver settings

Test results

2D graphics

The colors are very rich. On the whole, we are very pleased with 2D quality. 

As I mentioned plenty of times, estimation of 2D quality is subjective. Quality depends on a sample, as well as on the card/monitor tandem. And first of all you should pay attention to quality of the monitor and cable. 

TV-out, DVD-Video, multimonitor support

The driver now allows activating TV-out. We spoke a lot about such settings in the reviews on RADEON 8500 based cards. Thanks to the dual-monitor support the RADEON 9700 is able to display an image on TV without detriment to the image on the PC screen, you even don't have to reduce a resolution to 1024x768. However, the normal dual-monitor support works only on two monitors as a TV resolution will coincide with that on the monitor. But as the TV-out is limited by 1024x768, at a higher resolution the TV screen will display a floating window of 1024x768. 

On the whole, the TV image is of very good quality: 

The Clone, Extended modes are also supported on the TV-out, that is why you can watch movies, for example DVD, on TV. You can deceive the players which do not let you move a movie window to TV: you can interchange the monitor and TV in the driver settings so that you can watch a movie on TV and have a blank desktop on your monitor: 

Unfortunately, the latest version of the HyperSnapDX doesn't allow capturing screenshots from DVD movies, that is why I can't demonstrate quality of deinterlacing. The ATI Multimedia Center 7.8 supplied with the card entirely supports the technologies of the RADEON 9700 and provides excellent quality. But it's unclear whether FULLSTREAM and shader technologies can be used. It's announced that only the RealOne player supports it (which is meant primarily for the Internet - on-the-fly video playback). I haven't noticed difference between the ATI MMC 7.8 and RealOne Player (even when watching old MPEG1 files), but the ATI MMC takes only 16% of the processor's resources, while the RealOne uses it by 25%. Let's wait for new software versions with FULLSTREAM supported. 

3D graphics, 3DMark2001 - game tests

Last time we compared performance of the RADEON 9700 Pro and the leading NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600. Today we will continue the comparison and show how the situation changes with the new NVIDIA's drivers. Note that in the tests with the enabled AA and/or anisotropy the cards are loaded by 100% and the CPU's influence is not great. 

Last time the RADEON 9700 Pro outscored the GeForce4 Ti 4600 by 17 - 39%, and now the breakthrough is just 7 - 20.5%. 
 
 

• Rendered triangles per frame (min/avg/max): 19773/33753/143422 
• Rendered textures per frame with 16 bit textures (min/avg/max): 7.5/8.8/16.5 MB 
• Rendered textures per frame with 32 bit textures (min/avg/max): 15.1/17.7/30.3 MB 
• Rendered textures per frame with texture compression (min/avg/max): 10.7/12.2/21.0 MB 

• Rendered triangles per frame (min/avg/max): 46159/51440/147828 
• Rendered textures per frame with 16 bit textures (min/avg/max): 8.0/8.8/10.1 MB 
• Rendered textures per frame with 32 bit textures (min/avg/max): 15.6/17.2/19.8 MB 
• Rendered textures per frame with texture compression (min/avg/max): 9.3/10.9/13.5 MB 

• Rendered triangles per frame (min/avg/max): 16681/21746/39890 
• Rendered textures per frame with 16 bit textures (min/avg/max): 2.8/4.1/4.7 MB 
• Rendered textures per frame with 32 bit textures (min/avg/max): 5.7/8.2/9.4 MB 
• Rendered textures per frame with texture compression (min/avg/max): 5.0/7.2/8.4 MB 

• Rendered triangles per frame (min/avg/max): 55601/81714/180938 
• Rendered textures per frame with 16 bit textures (min/avg/max): 14.9/17.4/20.7 MB 
• Rendered textures per frame with 32 bit textures (min/avg/max): 28.4/33.5/40.0 MB 
• Rendered textures per frame with texture compression (min/avg/max): 28.4/33.5/40.0 MB 

Comments: 

1. The gap between the RADEON 9700 and the Ti 4600 is much smaller now, though it is still great, especially in the tough modes 
2. The biggest gap is in the AA mode because of the 256-bit memory bus
3. The tough modes with the AA and anisotropy enabled are an excellent means for estimation of capabilities and power of the newcomer from ATI, and the previous tests give perfect marks to these functions 
4. The overall performance of the RADEON 9700 obtained on the SIS 648 based test is much worse than that obtained on the i850E based stand. There is no difference between the AGP 4x and 8x modes. Either the ATI's or SIS's drivers are imperfect or the modern games do not use the 8x mode. Next time we will estimate operation of the AGP 3.0 on the VIA KT400. 

3D graphics, game tests

• Return to Castle Wolfenstein (MultiPlayer) (id Software/Activision) - OpenGL, multitexturing, Checkpoint-demo, test settings - maximum, S3TC OFF, the configurations can be downloaded from here

 
• Serious Sam: The Second Encounter v.1.05 (Croteam/GodGames) - OpenGL, multitexturing, Grand Cathedral demo, test settings: quality, S3TC OFF

 
• Quake3 Arena v.1.17 (id Software/Activision) - OpenGL, multitexturing, Quaver, test settings - maximum: detailing level - High, texture detailing level - #4, S3TC OFF, smoothness of curves is much increased through variables r_subdivisions "1" and r_lodCurveError "30000" (at default r_lodCurveError is 250 !), the configurations can be downloaded from here 

 
• Comanche4 Benchmark Demo (NovaLogic) - Direct3D, Shaders, Hardware T&L, Dot3, cube texturing, highest quality

 
• Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo v.927 (Digital Extreme/Epic Games) - Direct3D, Vertex Shaders, Hardware T&L, Dot3, cube texturing, default quality

 
• Code Creatures Benchmark Pro (CodeCult) is a game that demonstrates operation of cards in the DirectX 8.1, Shaders, HW T&L. 

 
• AquaMark (Massive Development) is a game that demonstrates operation of cards in the DirectX 8.1, Shaders, HW T&L. 

 
• RightMark Video Analyzer v.0.4 (Philip Gerasimov) - DirectX 8.1, Dot3, cube texturing, shadow buffers, vertex and pixel shaders (1.1, 1.4). 

Quake3 Arena, Quaver

Thanks to the new NVIDIA's driver the Ti 4600 managed to catch up with the RADEON 9700, but the gap is still great especially in the heavy tests. 

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, Grand Cathedral

As I mentioned last time it's either the ATI's driver that works terribly in this game, or there is something else that prevents the RADEON 9700 from showing its might. I pin my hopes on the new drivers or at least on  explanation from ATI.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Multiplayer), Checkpoint

This test doesn't worsen the scores of the ATI's solution as much as in the other tests. 

Code Creatures

The engine enables almost all modern capabilities of video cards of the latest generation. And the demo program based on this engine contains quite tough scenes as to the texture size, geometry and effects used. 

No comments. 

Comanche4 DEMO

A processor affects much this test, and the load on the cards is very high, that is why the overall performance is low at the maximum quality level. That is why even a 50% gain is a great achievement, and RADEON 9700 often has more. 

Unreal Tournament 2003 DEMO b.927

This test puzzles many, but we decided to leave it here until the final DEMO version is released. Yet in our 3Digest we wrote that performance of the ATI's cards was unexplainable. But even in such a sad position the RADEON is able to break down the resistance of the game and take the lead again. Dashes in the table mean that the data obtained last time were incorrect, though the tests were carried out several times (probably the Demo was raw). 

AquaMark

No comments. 

RightMark 3D

This test is very complicated as it examines operability of modern accelerators with the DX8.1 functions enabled and their speed. And the RADEON 9700 copes with it excellently. 

Now let's draw a conclusion on the performance in general. Before testing on the new platform and with the old NVIDIA's driver 30.82 we wrote: According to our previous tests the RADEON 9700 Pro outscores the GeForce4 Ti 4600 without AA by 24.2%, with AA by 105%, with anisotropy by 103%, and with AA and anisotropy by 108%. Well, the average price difference of 37% is overlapped by the performance boost. 

The new results are: the RADEON 9700 Pro outperforms the GeForce4 Ti 4600 without AA or anisotropy by 15.8% ON AVERAGE, with AA by 94.2%, with anisotropy by 62.8%, with AA and anisotropy by 64.4%. Although the gap is smaller, the figures still look astounding. Again the average price difference of 37% between the RADEON 9700 Pro and the GeForce4 Ti 4600 (on the US market) is made up for by the might of the ATI's card. Moreover, we still don't know what new ATI's drivers are going to offer us. 

It should be noted that with the anisotropy enabled at the maximum level 8 in the 40.41 drivers the advantage of the RADEON 9700 could be lower if we didn't change settings of anisotropy in Direct3D in the drivers. The Level 8 in the panel of settings actually mean Level4. And the true maximum level can be set only through the RivaTuner or the registry. We marked this mode on the diagrams as "ANISO 8x true". And exactly these figures were used for comparison of the RADEON 9700. 

3D quality

We have shown the screenshots from Morrowind on the 40.41 just to make sure the graphics quality doesn't get worse on this game with these drivers of the GeForce4 Ti. 

The tests let us know that the drivers 40.41 are optimized only for the GeForce4 Ti and possibly for the GeForce3 as well. And there are a lot of problems with other cards; many complain about TV-out, quality etc. with the new drivers. But the need to put obstacles on the way of the RADEON 9700 made NVIDIA to release the raw drivers 40.41. But I don't think this will stop the ATI's procession. 

Conclusion

1. The RADEON 9700 Pro based video cards are the most powerful game accelerators for the beginning of autumn. 
2. They have a powerful system of image displaying on two monitors one of which can be a TV screen; quality of the integrated TV-out is very good and supports 1024x768. 
3. RADEON 9700 contains the DirectX 9.0 support which is not tested yet. 
4. High-speed 400 MHz RAMDACs provide superb pictures on both heads; 2D quality is perfect on the whole. 
5. The current RADEON 9700 carries all advantages of the modern 3D architecture, including a progressive áá - MSAA, top-quality anisotropic filtering which can be combined with the trilinear one, operation with multiple textures etc. (not to mention DirectX 9.0) 
6. Unfortunately, I can't demonstrate advantages of the AGP 8x over 4È. It's either on the account of the drivers from ATI or SIS, or maybe the 4È mode is just sufficient for the modern games, as well as 128MB of memory. In future we will touch upon this question once again to make study operation of the AGP 4x/8x. We will also look at the difference between these modes in tests of professional applications. 

As far as the Gigabyte's card is concerned, we have nothing to say about its peculiarities as it's based on the reference design. I hope this Taiwanese trade mark will get even more popular when potential users of the MAYA II buy and work with this solution. 

At last, maybe the NVIDIA NV30 will replace the RADEON 9700 on its throne by the end of autumn, but...