difference between ATI 9600 vs 9600pro?

[KingMoo]

I just bought an ATI Radeon 9600 (128mg) for $160 and I was wondering if their is a major difference between it and the 9600pro.

The clerk was saying that the 9600pro is just clocked higher so I was thinking that majbe the 9600 can be overclocked to do the same.

All I need it for is games (maybe world of warcraft) and I would like to hook it up to the TV. Are there any other bonuses that the 9600pro has that I probably don't need?

Any help would be great, thanks.

Comp. Specs:
-P4 1.7
-ASUS p4s333 mobo
-256 mg RAM
-GeForce mx/mx 400

[Peter M]

Well of course the non-pro is not only clocked lower in both GPU and RAM, but also uses RAM chips with a slower maximum speed. Else the lower clock would be rather pointless, in terms of cost saving.

Also, thanks to the lower core clock, non-pro 9600 cards usually are fanless, while the pro ones do use a fan.

Note that there are inbetween "Pro EZ" cards that use the fast GPU from the Pro flavor, but the slow RAM from the non-Pro.

[tony_j15]

Basically the only diff is clock speeds. No cool hidden features in the Pro that you dont have. You should enjoy the card, it'll do ya just fine.

[Juan Sanchez]

Well, the 9600np has TSOP ram and the one I got (for $70 I might add) was able to reach 520 mhz on the ram and 423 on the core. Oh and the only 9600np that can on the ram side are the ones armed with Samsung Modules their are cheaper ones with Elixer Ram that can't OC at all. The Pro's use BGA ram wich is the same as the ones used on the 9800 Pro, they are sometime good for 730 mhz!!!! In short we'll (I have a 9600np to, cept I paid $70 for mine) never in our lives reach 9600 Pro speeds but If we can get the core to 500 mhz and the ram stable at 520 at least we'll get 9600 Pro-style performance.

[slinky]

BGA ram is able to run at much higher high frequencies more reliably and without the need for extra cooling (it also helps signal integrity). The 9600 np uses TSOP which lacks these advantages.

[Peter M]

As I said above, the non-pro uses the slower RAM to hit a lower price point, and clocks the core lower to make the fan redundant, again to shave cost.

BGA package RAM chips are drastically more expensive than TSOP. Right, they're better, both thermally and signal quality wise, but TSOP is perfectly fine for the RAM speed found on plain 9600.

[Starfury_2260]

$160......wow thats not a good deal at all. newegg has a 9600XT for $165!