CONTENTS

1. Video card features
2. Testbed, test tools, 2D quality
3. Test results: Quake3 ARENA
4. Test results: Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
5. Test results: Return to Castle Wolfenstein
6. Test results: Code Creatures DEMO
7. Test results: Unreal Tournament 2003
8. Test results: Unreal II: The Awakening
9. Test results: RightMark 3D
10. Conclusion

The summer, night, Nice... The beach glimmers under the street lights, the moonlight on the water exposes wonderful shaders 2.0...

My head is clear, I perfectly remember ATI's Ocean screensaver... A light breeze sways water making it roll languishingly over the sand and removes geometrical boundaries between the sea and the coast. Nothing of this is implemented into games (that still offer glyceric or rubber water).

How wonderful is to lie on the wet sand cooled after the day heat with legs in warm waves, and watch the sky with so many stars on it... Even if NVIDIA and ATI CEOs would buy all programmers on Earth, no vertex shader will ever reproduce this remoteness, finite infinity, inconceivable distance to stars.

Just imagine that every star in the sky is a sun that is often bigger than ours. How far away the Sun should be to look like a small star... No Z buffer can withstand such memory requirements...

And there Alexander Medvedev, our 3D Guru, is riding a dolphin shouting something... Hmm, a trueform dolphin? Well, why not. Looks normal, just a bit skinny. The developers might have saved on polygons again...

Alexander shouts again... It's something about taking Taylor... To hell with this math! He's finally gone, thanks God.

What a beautiful couple... Oh! It's Philipp Gerasimov with his new rendered girl!.. My, she's pretty!.. Hey, who said I was watching, I wasn't!

The dawn is near... 

Just look at the sky colors! And I wonder how many passes it took to create those clouds? What? They are real? That's strange... But the sky resembles Unreal5...

I'm falling asleep, and shaders are nursing me... 

Aghhh... The dream was interrupted at the most interesting moment! Drowsily I looked up and saw a far-away display showing an Excel table... How hard it is to return to the prose of life after the poetry of dreams...

We keep on tracking new solutions on the video card market (yawning). Today we have one more High-End card (more cheerfully :-). But this time it comes with the ATI RADEON 9800 PRO GPU onboard. We have lately examined quite a lot of cards based on NVIDIA's processors (because of their optimizations and cheats). But keep in mind that ATI also has offerings in this or even higher sectors. The RADEON 9800 PRO GPU is studied in the following reviews: 

Theoretical materials and reviews of video cards which concern functional properties of the GPU ATI RADEON 9500/9700/9800

• Analysis of RADEON 9700 architecture and Microsoft DirectX 9.0 
• ATI RADEON 9700 Pro 128MB Review 
• Gigabyte MAYA II R9700Pro 128MB - performance estimated on the new Pentium 4 2.53 GHz based platform, comparison with the NVIDIA's 40.41 driver
• Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro 128MB - new CATALYST 2.3 driver estimated in 3DMark2001 SE, and Unreal Tournament 2003 DEMO final release
• PowerColor Evil Commando2 RADEON 9700 Pro 128MB - performance of the new CATALYST 2.3 driver estimated in game tests, 3D quality issues
• Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro on ATI RADEON 9700 Pro: extreme overclocking
• ATI RADEON 9500, 9700 and Gigabyte MAYA II RADEON 9500 
• Sapphire Atlantis RADEON 9500 128MB and videocards tests in DOOM III v.0.02 
• ATI RADEON 9500 PRO 128MB 
• Gigabyte MAYA II RADEON 9500 PRO and Hercules 3D Prophet 9500 PRO - detailed analysis of anisotropic filtering of RADEON 9700 
• Sapphire Technology RADEON 7500, 8500, 9000/Pro, 9700 Pro, anisotropic filtering of RADEON 9700 
• HIS Excalibur RADEON 9700 PRO - Tests in DirectX 9.0 RC0 
• ATI RADEON 9500 64MB, 9500 128MB, 9500 PRO, 9700 and 9700 PRO in DirectX 9.0: Part 1 - Game tests in 3DMark2001, and Soft9700! 
• ATI RADEON 9500 64MB, 9500 128MB, 9500 PRO, 9700 and 9700 PRO in DirectX 9.0: Part 2 - Tests in DirectX 9.0 - synthetic tests from RightMark 3D 
• Sapphire Atlantis RADEON 9700 and RADEON 9700 PRO Ultimate Edition 
• YUAN SmartVGA RADEON 9000 64MB and RADEON 9700 PRO 
• Connect3D video cards on the ATI's chips 
• ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB
• ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB: Part 1 - game tests and performance 
• Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 PRO 128MB and Hercules 3D Prophet 7500 128MB, and scandal around the 3DMark03 
• Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 PRO 128MB and Hercules 3D Prophet 7500 128MB (single page) 
• Sapphire Technologies ATI RADEON 9200/9600/9600PRO/9800PRO video cards 
• Connect3D, Gigabyte and CP.Technology ATI RADEON 9800 PRO video cards 
• Sapphire Atlantis RADEON 9600 256MB, Sapphire Atlantis RADEON 9600 PRO Ultimate Edition 128MB, Gigabyte RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB, Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 PRO 128MB 

The third article from the bottom describes the most expensive video card of the RADEON 9800 PRO family. Such product comes equipped with 256 MB DDRII memory which is a bit more efficient than that of a usual RADEON 9800 PRO. Sure, such add-on doesn't cost $100 (the price difference between the cards) but it must be very curious to look at the fight of titans, i.e. the fastest accelerators from ATI and NVIDIA (GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256 MB). 

We compared them before but that was with the old demo benchmarks. Today we have the new ones, that is why the battle looks intriguing. Besides, both products are of the same price range (for the middle of July on our local market). 

The card developer, Manli, is not a new-comer. Many have certainly heard about it. However, quality of its old low-end cards based on the RivaTNT/TNT2/GeForce2 MX was pretty poor. 

Fortunately, the situation's changing for better. First of all, the company has shifted to ATI; secondly, it has improved the quality control system, and the number of products under its own trade mark is increasing. In the High-End sphere Manli often places orders with third card makers, in particular, PC Partner. 

The firm is headquartered in Hong Kong, but also has production facilities in China. It makes a lot of products by orders, i.e. without its own trade mark. But today we have a video card which Manli is greatly proud of.

Card

Manli RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB

AGP x8/x4/x2 interface, 256 MB DDR-II SDRAM memory in 16 chips on both PCB sides.
Manli RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB
Samsung memory chips of  2.2ns access time, it corresponds to 454 (908) MHz, but the memory works at 350 (700) MHz, the GPU at 380 MHz. 256bit memory bus.

Comparison with the reference design, front view
Manli RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB	Reference card ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB

Comparison with the reference design, back view
Manli RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB	Reference card ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB

This is the very reference card as the p/n indicates that the product was made for ATI. It's very difficult to make such a sophisticated card (the layout and tweaking requires time and expertise), that is why cards from different firms will remain copies for quite a long time yet.  Here's the cooler now.     Manli RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB Actually, I can't see what Manli has brought in this card. Even the cooler is reference.  The cooler looks very unsophisticated. The sink has a protruding part to be pressed tighter to the chip and to make sure that the protection frame around the die which can turn out to be higher doesn't hamper heat exchange.    The processor codenamed R350 is hidden under the sink. The first photo demonstrates that it has a mirror-like surface.   Each memory chip is equipped with its own sink, though it works at 350MHz instead of the rated clock of 450 MHz. But even in this case the temperatures are high. Well, such memory needs another more expensive PCB and a cooler like FlowFX so that it can work at 450 MHz. This proves once again that it was released in haste and needs further improving.  NVIDIA arranged the memory chips around the processor to make the distance from the core as small as possible. Here the chips are arranged differently, and it's a problem to reach the farthest chips. Such layout doesn't promise high scores, even equal to the GeForce FX 5900. But there are some other aspects beside the clock speeds that influence the performance.  Have a loot at the accessory pack:

Manli RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB
User Guide, CD with drivers and utilities, PowerDVD, TV extenders, DVI-to-d-Sub and S-Video-to-RCA adapters.

Manli RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB
The package isn't a match for a High-End product at all! It's small and hardly houses the whole pack of accessories! Besides, these marks on the box of the memory size, TV-out support... make the box look like that of a GeForce MX or even cheaper noname card.

In general, 2D quality is excellent (but of this sample and in these conditions).  Test results: cards' performance Conventional signs: ANISO 8xP - Anisotropic 8x Performance (earlier it was called Balanced), ANISO 8xQ - Anisotropic 8x Quality, ANISO 16xQ - Anisotropic 16x Quality.  Test applications:  Return to Castle Wolfenstein (MultiPlayer) (id Software/Activision) - OpenGL, multitexturing, ixbt0703-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, ixbt0703 demo, test settings: quality, S3TC OFF  Quake3 Arena v.1.17 (id Software/Activision) - OpenGL, multitexturing, ixbt0703 demo, 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 Unreal Tournament 2003 v.2225 (Digital Extreme/Epic Games) - Direct3D, Vertex Shaders, Hardware T&L, Dot3, cube texturing, default quality Code Creatures Benchmark Pro (CodeCult) - the game that demonstrates card's operation in DirectX 8.1, Shaders, HW T&L. Unreal II: The Awakening (Legend Ent./Epic Games) - Direct3D, Vertex Shaders, Hardware T&L, Dot3, cube texturing, default quality RightMark 3D v.0.4 (one of game scenes) - DirectX 8.1, Dot3, cube texturing, shadow buffers, vertex and pixel shaders (1.1, 1.4). If you want to get the demo benchmarks that we use let me know by e-mail.  Quake3 Arena ATI wins only at the highest-quality level of anisotropy but remember that the GeForce FX 5900 demonstrates better quality of this function.  Serious Sam: The Second Encounter The scores are generally equal here.  Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Multiplayer) When the AA or anisotropy are disabled Manli marginally wins, but with the AA and Quality-level anisotropy the card gets more scores, though NVIDIA's Performance anisotropy smashes it to pieces.  Code Creatures Note that NVIDIA's drivers play tricks in this test. The performance drop was revealed only of the FX 5900 on v44.90, - its performance is now equal to what we got earlier with the Anti-Detect.  At the moment it loses to the NVIDIA's card. But the comparison is not correct because of the cheats; as soon as possible we will try to run this test on v44.71 with AD to make the comparison objective. Or we will use next versions of NVIDIA drivers if no cheats will be used here.  Unreal Tournament 2003 The RADEON 9800 PRO take a lead, though the anisotropy presses it off the throne. I can say that the scores are generally equal.  Unreal II: The Awakening ATI sweeps the floor! Look how much the scores differ from the UT2003. NVIDIA does have optimizations for the UT2003, and doesn't for the Unreal II. If a benchmark is not open, NVIDIA doesn't strive for any optimizations...  RightMark 3D This test reveals who copes better with shaders. Undoubtedly, the FX 5900 falls behind.

Conclusion

...The sunset is nearing, I'm walking along the coast again. A tortuous line on the wet sand changes its shape all the time: none of the designers managed to realize such an effect yet. The Sun plunging into the sea leaves us milky  water that flabbily shimmers under the dim light, a crimson sky and amazement that games are still far from it. I looked at the beach, at the sunlit road with lush gardens along it.. How many polygons would it take to reproduce such beauty?... A kangaroo's jumping nearby. On his pouch I noticed the word "Sapphire". He stopped, waved me, cast a look into his pouch and said that the sample was growing up... When he ran away it occurred to me that I hadn't test the Sapphire yet and... woke up again. 

When I opened my eyes I saw the Manli's box. I recollected what did it meant and tried to fall asleep. The display with an Excel table came to me again... 

In general, the Manli RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB can offer you:

1. The highest 3D speed actually equal to that of the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (sometimes even higher); the prices are roughly the same at that; 
2. Finished technological solution with the DX9 support (such games are not far away), and with the fastest shaders;
3. The card's not bulky and has a simple and quiet cooling system.

I must say it again that High-End products from ATI's partners ship in very poor boxes. Also, I'd like to thank ATI for the excellent chipset RADEON 9800 PRO that doesn't yield to its rival in speed and functions (all these shader versions 2.0+ can be of interest only for developers). But the card is obviously overpriced considering that extra 128 MB and DDR II which run into $100 are not needed yet. I hope ATI and its partners will soon solve this problem so that these poor packages could become more attractive compared to a bit slower but fully-armed FX 5900 Ultra based cards. 

In our 3Digest you can find full comparison characteristics for video cards of this and other classes. 
 
 
 
 

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