wacked scores on 3dmark ??

[Sweeper]

Sapphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis Non Pro - 3DMark 2K3 - 4275
Card clocked at:321/321(642)

Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro Atlantis - 3DMark 2K3 - 3670
Card clocked at:480/360(720)

System:
MSI 845PE-Max
P4 2.53GHz
WD 60GB ATA100 7200RPM
1GB OCZ DDR333 Rev. 3.2

How is this possible..? Did I just throw away money..... The 9500 went back due to a bad card. No more available. Picked up the 9600 Pro paid the extra cash. Scores horribly both 2k3 and 2k1 against the 9500 Non Pro

Using latest ATI drivers and also tried the Omega version also.

[muno]

futuremark says:
approx your setup,
9500: 3000-5500
9600: 3000-4000
-M

[Sweeper]

So the 9600 Pro is a slower card but cost more???? So I got ripped..... should have kept the messed up 9500.... sent it to be fixed........

[Sweeper]

so anyone know why the 9500 non pro kicks my 9600 Pro's butt???? This really blows that I get a card that costs more and it performs worse than a cheaper card. Any suggestions are welcome... or explainations...

[darrelld]

I think it's because the 9500 has 8 rendering pipelines, and the 9600 has 4

[Sweeper]

I noticed that too.... I was looking up the specs and saw the 9500 series has 8 rendering pipelines. But, question: The why is the 9600 Pro more expensive but less of a performer atleast on my end. I've have looked up scores on the card and the 9600 Pro SHOULD beat the 9500 Non Pro from all the comparisons I saw.

crazy........

[muno]

As far as I understood, pro/non-pro only means the clock/memory frequenzy.

So, having a 9500non-pro clocked higher than stock clock 9600pro would make the 9500 faster.

That's how I understand it
Why 9600 costs more? Well, guess it has higher board number 9500->9600 so people think it's faster, thus, more money can be claimed from it
-M

[JayMan]

yeh unfortunatly the 9600's are actually a lower performing card compaired to the 9500's...

Supposedly the higher clock speed of the 9600's is meant to make up for the lower pipeline count... But as ya can see it doesn't...

And as for how it can be more expensive... one word... Marketing!

Sorry dude...

JayMan

[Sweeper]

yeah... I thought I had studied and read all that I could on these cards. Not having the full knowledge can come back to bite you in the ###. The pipeline count is a big difference. I'm not much into gaming... but I don't like to get ripped off either, and I feel I got taken. I went with the 9500 as my first choice but the card was bad and when I took it back they only offered in store credit for up to a year or send it back to Sapphire to have fixed. They were out of the 9500's so I picked up the 9600 Pro and paid the extra $$$. The card isn't a bad card by any means, but, it does get to me that I spent that extra cash.