Radeon 9600XT by ASUS Review - Inside the Box and the Card
(Page 2 of 10 )
The Radeon 9600XT is a fairly small card. Its on the now traditional red PCB and it doesn't require a molex power connector to power it, but the fan and heatsink are tall enough to make a tight fit for the next PCI slot on my motherboard. Asus is also trying to be slick and made the heatsink on some of the memory shaped in the form of the word 'Asus'. It looks cool, but I had initial concerns on how well it will dissipate heat from the memory.
The Radeon 9600XT came in a pretty big box, much larger than any of the other cards I've looked at. But when you look at the box, you get a big reminder of why you should get a Radeon card - the Half-Life 2 coupon.
What's interesting about the Half-Life 2 coupon is that if you visit ATi's website about it, it tells you that until Half-Life 2 is released, Valve is making another offer: the Valve Premier Pack.
(From the website)
Until Half-Life® 2 is available at retail, Valve and ATI are offering the Valve Premier Pack free, which includes the games: Half-Life, Counter Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Deathmatch Classic, Half-Life®: Opposing Force and Ricochet. This is a limited time bonus offer that expires once Half-Life ® 2 is available.
So, if you just bought the card and are itching to play a game, this may be able to quench your thirst for gaming until Half-Life 2 comes out. If you can wait for Half-Life 2, there are seven CDs of software for you to play with, and three of them are full of games.
Battle Engine Aquila and Gun Metal: War Transformed look nice, but I was pleasantly surprised to see demos of Splinter Cell and Warcraft III on the third game CD. The third game CD also has demos of Big Mutha Truckers, BREED, Colin McRae Rally 3, and TOCA Race Driver. I played one of the training missions to Battle Engine Aquila, a DirectX 9 game, and am looking forward to playing it more.
Next: Extra Goodies! >>
More Video Cards Articles
More By Quantum Skyline
/ 31 
