X-bit labs

Roundup of 7 Contemporary Integrated Graphics Chipsets for Socket 478 and Socket A Platforms (page 3)

Category: Chipsets

by Tim Tscheblockov

[ 07/05/2004 | 11:09 AM ]

ATI RADEON 9000 PRO IGP

The RADEON 9000 PRO IGP is a single-channel analog of the RADEON 9100 PRO IGP, which we couldn’t include into our tests because of the absence of such mainboards in retail. The RADEON 9000 PRO IGP has the same graphics core as the RADEON 9100/9100 PRO IGP, but it is “stifled” here by having to access the memory across a narrow 64-bit bus.

ATI claims the memory controller of the RADEON 9000 PRO IGP to be not just “half” of the memory controller of the RADEON 9100 IGP – it has certain improvements for an efficient use of the memory bus, i.e. it is half of the improved controller of the PRO version of the RADEON 9100 IGP. Unfortunately, we don’t have any information about the nature of those improvements yet.

Like the dual-channel version, the RADEON 9000 PRO IGP supports processors with 400/533/800MHz FSB and modules of PC2100/2700/3200 DDR SDRAM – the most progressive processors and modules for today.

The A350-SV mainboard from PowerColor is based on this chipset:

It’s rather strange to see a mainboard under the brand of a graphics card manufacturing company, yes? The board has a RADEON 9000 PRO IGP (RC350) North Bridge coupled with an IXP150 South Bridge. The user manual mentions the SB200 South Bridge, but we wanted to make sure and removed the sticker from the chip – only to see the good old IXP150! The A350-SV complies with the MicroATX form-factor and offers the following slots and connectors:

• Socket 478 for Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron CPUs with 400/533/800MHz FSB;
• 2 slots (1 channel) for PC2100/2700/3200 DDR SDRAM;
• 1 AGP 4x/8x slot, 3 PCI slots;
• 2 ATA 66/100 slots (IXP150);
• 1 RJ-45 10/100 Fast Ethernet connector (RTL8100C);
• 3 audio connectors: Line-out, Line-in and Mic-in (ALC655);
• 1 VGA connector;
• 1 parallel and 1 serial port, 4 USB connectors.

The RADEON 9000 PRO IGP has exactly the same graphics core as the 9100 IGP, so the chipsets will only differ in the speed of graphics due to the 9000 PRO IGP’s having a single-channel memory controller.

So, ATI Technologies presents two products in our review: one is expensive and, obviously, high-performing dual-channel RADEON 9100 IGP and another is the cheaper single-channel RADEON 9000 PRO IGP. The functionality and the accessories of the mainboards from ASUS and PowerColor fully correspond to the positioning of the chipsets these mainboards are based on.

Before proceeding to other chipsets, I’d like to mention one more curious technology realized in ATI’s chipsets, called SurroundView. The technology permits simultaneous operation of the integrated graphics core and the external graphics card on a chip from ATI that you install into the AGP slot. The result is a multi-display configuration – up to three monitors! This feature may not be too necessary at home, but might be useful in office. The only problem left for us to discuss is the quality of the output to the monitor. We’ll see how well ATI, ASUS and PowerColor are doing here in the appropriate section of the article.