9600 differneces

[MitaDC]

Hey what is the difference between the
$116 - RADEON 9600 Pro Ultra
$189 - RADEON 9600 Pro Ultimate
$132 - RADEON 9600 Pro 256MB
$116 - RADEON 9600 Pro 128MB
$126 RADEON 9600 256MB
$116 - RADEON 9600 128MB
??
Is it just the mhz it runs at...I can see the mb diff but like...Pro ultra...Pro...etc what is the diff??

Thx

[joker_927]

Ultimate Edition has a huge heatsink and stuff on it. The others are probably similar. Different heatsinks, different speeds maybe. Of course the one that has 256MB ram is more $$. Is that 256MB DDR-II? If it is, it's a pointless waste of money.

[MitaDC]

What is DDR-II....

[joker_927]

Normally Radeon 9600's have 128 MegaBites of Dual Data Rate (DDR) Ram. The reason DDR is so cool is because when it only running at, let's say, 300mhz, the DDR technology doubles that! Which means that it runs at 600mhz!

It makes making ram a lot easier since every 1 mhz jump is now worth two mhz.

Get it?

Most ram in computers is now DDR.

Okay, now DDR-II. It is the saem thing, except now the memory spped is QUADRUPLED! So taht 300mhz ram we started off with above, is now running at 1200mhz!!

What sucks about Radeon cards with DDR-II is that there is a lot more latency with the RAM. This is where I don't understand either. Something happened with the cards where there is SO MUCH RAM, it begins to get slow. The technology hasn't been perfected yet.

Thus a Radeon with 128MB DDR performs much better than a Radeon with 256MB of DDR-II.

I also think DDR-II produced more heat.

Hope I helped.

[MitaDC]

Thx man

[tony_j15]

lol joker. DDR II does not quadruple your speed. It is merely a high speed form of DDR. DDR is running out of headroom, cant get much more speed out of it. DDRII will allow higher scaling.

Mita: the 256mb versions arent worth getting. The Pro ultra is a slightly higher clocked version of the Pro, whicher higher clocked than the regular. The best buy is the Pro.