Test of the Radeon 9650

The unavoidable guys at Barefeats tested the Radeon 9650 that's available on high end G5s. This card's main feature is to support 30" displays thanks to its Dual-link DVI. No big surprise, its performances won't stand in front of those of the X800 or the 6800 Ultra.
Obviously because Apple made some concessions when doubling the RAM size. Instead of running at 311 MHz like the Radeon 9600 XT, it will just reach 270 MHz. Though small a difference it might sound, it will involve a proportional decrease of performances as the memory bus on the 96xx is quite smaller than that of the 9800 series. In that case, keeping a frequency of 401 MHz just like on the 6800 Ultra is not very useful.
This card is then only just a way to use screens above 23". If you only do 2D there's no problem with it. But if you need a powerful, high resolution 3D card, you will have to change for a X800 or a 6800.