Gigacube Radeon 9600 Pro

[tgxiii]

http://www.komusa.com/gigacube.html

I e-mailed them asking about the LV and Ultimate Edition 9600 video cards. They said the following:

"The LV means it has 400Mhz memory speed and the UE has 2.5ns which is up to 800Mhz."

My concern is, the LV is clearly marked as "Pro" yet they say that it only has 400 MHz memory speed. Is it a toned-down Radeon?

My other concern, does having 2.5ns really mean it has up to 800 MHz memory speed? And just because it can go up to 800, will it be rated at that speed? Is the added memory speed worth the extra $44?

[GRECS]

hey i woudlt go with that card. Those look more like 4.0 rams then 2.5 but i could be wrong cuz i have never accualy seen 2.5. Id say go with the ati or the power color 9600 pro . The power color one has 2.8s which is really good while my freinds ati has 3.0s

GOOD LUCK

[Xtreeme]

No garuntee. 400mhz still dont tell you anything. Everyone forgets when it comes to video but remembers for system mem. Timings will limit your overall mhz of the mem. So with aggresive mem timings you can make 400mhz rated mem barley able to hit 200mhz. It just depends on how aggresivly they timed the mem is all. It may have headroom-may not. They may use 400mhz mem run aggresive and at 300mhz speed, with 0 headroom for olocking. But performance will be similar.

[Peter M]

These "Pro LE" cards with Pro core clock and 200 MHz RAM are popping up here in Germany too.

Once again the reminder, "400 MHz" DDR RAM is actually running 200 MHz. Don't let this confuse you.

[tgxiii]

Thanks for the suggestions and explanations. I'll look into Powercolor.

[tgxiii]

I noticed that many of the Powercolor Radeon 9600s are "EZ Version." I found that this means the memory is at 400 MHz instead of the default 600 MHz. I also found some "Built by ATi" Radeons. Should I expect these "Built by ATi" to have 400 MHz engine clock and 600 MHz core clock speeds?

Here are the places I found that sell them:
http://buyaib.com/fcoinstatira.html
http://stlpcsales.site.yahoo.net/atira96pro12.html

I just checked their ratings on Resellerratings. BuyAIB got a 1.7 and STL PC Sales got a 5, so I'll bypass them. Does anyone know where I can get a Radeon 9600 Pro non-LV, non-EZ, non-anything? I want it to come as specified by ATi. Do the Sapphire cards come as specified by ATi?

Also, if it's an OEM, can I just download the drivers from the ATi website? I have never bought OEM; I always bought retail.