Digit Life states Radeon 9500 128 MB uses 256 bit bus!!!

[sabeehali]

Read it all here

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon/sapphire-r9500-128.html

When we studied the RADEON 9500 for the first time we noticed that the chip is marked as the RADEON 9700 Pro

So, what do we have?

RADEON 9500 (just for today?) is built on the RADEON 9700 Pro, having no different features from it

except the memory chips with a higher access time of 3.6ns;
64MB model has twice as less memory chips, that is why the memory exchange bus becomes 128bit;
128MB model is a copy of the RADEON 9700 Pro, they have no difference outwardly (even without the coolers);
The chip of the RADEON 9500 is the same, and I don't see how it's possible to cut it on the hardware level without correcting the marking of the processor (to make it clear which chip is crippled and which is not).

In view of this I think that the RADEON 9500 is cut off on the software level. If you remember, in the 3dfx Velocity100 they locked one module on the software level to make its speed slower compared to the Voodoo3 2000. But that time they didn't provide any reliable protection, the key for the second TMU was easy to find.

In the multitexturing mode when the chip may use all its possibilities in operation with the textures, the performance doesn't worsen at all when the mode changes for AA2x! This fact proves that the card comes with a 256-bit bus!

So what do u guys think?

 

[KimB]

I think the writer is way offbase in making this assumption. Framebuffer compression can fairly easy hide a performance hit in simple fillrate tests.

 

[Dave Baumann]

All you have to do is look at the arrangement of the memory chips. The 128MB board they were using wasn't really a 9500 but a 9700 - you can tell this because 4 memory chips are each going to the top half section and the left section of the chip: that using the full 256-bit bus. The retail ATI 9500 uses 8 memory chips that all go to the top section of the chip, so you can tell its only using 128-bits. Now that ATI have sorted that reference board all the 3rd part manufacturers will follow suit.