ATI FireGL 9700 X1-128

The ATI FireGL 9700 X1-128 is a professional workstation graphics card from AMD, built on the R300 architecture and fabricated by TSMC on a 150 nm process. It integrates 110 million transistors on a 215 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 511.6K per mm². The card was released on July 22, 2002, as part of the FireGL (9000) generation, and is now end-of-life. The database records no benchmark scores for this model — its average benchmark score is 0 — and it occupies the 50th percentile of all GPUs tracked.

Benchmark Performance

The FACT PACK lists an empty benchmark array for the FireGL 9700 X1-128, meaning no synthetic or real-world scores are available to compare directly against other products. The average benchmark score is recorded as 0, which reflects the absence of measured runs rather than a performance result. Consequently, the only comparative metric in the data is the percentileVsAllGpus field, which places the card at the 50th percentile. That position indicates a median standing within the database's GPU population: it neither leads nor trails the majority of tracked parts.

What the data does provide are the fixed-function throughput rates. The card renders pixels at 2.600 GPixel/s and textures at 2.600 GTexel/s, driven by 8 texture mapping units and 8 render output units. The equality of the pixel and texture rates is notable — it suggests a balanced pipeline where neither fill-rate stage is a bottleneck relative to the other. The memory subsystem delivers 19.84 GB/s of bandwidth, which is the figure that feeds those TMUs and ROPs. Without rival deltas, the percentile is the sole positioning tool; a 50th-percentile rank means the card sits at the midpoint of the distribution. For a 2002 professional workstation part, these throughput numbers define its raw capability, even if no benchmark scores corroborate them. The data also leaves shading units, fp32, and fp16 fields null, so no compute throughput can be stated. The 8 TMUs and 8 ROPs are the only execution resource counts provided, and they align with the equal pixel and texture rates.

How It Compares

The nearestRivals field in the FACT PACK is empty, so no direct rival names or percentage deltas can be cited. The card's position must instead be inferred from its lineage and its percentile. Its predecessor is the Fire GL, and its successor is the FirePro Terascale — both named in the data. The generation field identifies it as part of the FireGL (9000) family, placing it within AMD's professional product line of that era. The 50th percentile against all GPUs is the only quantitative comparison available; it shows the card in the middle of the field. The R300 architecture, built on 150 nm with 110 million transistors and a 215 mm² die, situates it in the early DirectX 9 generation of workstation hardware. The AGP 8x bus interface was the standard interconnect for that period, and the 2x DVI outputs indicate a dual-monitor professional configuration. The card is a single-slot design, which is consistent with a modest physical footprint for the era. Because no rivals are listed, the analysis cannot state "X percent faster than Y"; the data only supports the median percentile ranking and the architectural facts above. The end-of-life production status further contextualizes it as a legacy product, and the absence of a launch MSRP means no pricing information is available for comparison.

Power and Cooling

The FACT PACK does not specify a TDP for the FireGL 9700 X1-128, so no thermal design power figure can be stated. The suggested PSU is 200 W, which is the only power-related number in the data. The card requires no auxiliary power connectors — the power connectors field reads "None" — meaning all power is drawn through the AGP 8x slot. This is consistent with a single-slot design, which the data confirms. The absence of external power connectors implies that the board's power draw stayed within the AGP slot's delivery limit, though the data does not quantify that draw. The 200 W suggested PSU is a system-level recommendation that accounts for the CPU, motherboard, and other components, not just the graphics card. The 150 nm process and 110 million transistor count suggest a modest power envelope for the era, but without a TDP value, any estimate would be speculative. The single-slot cooler is the only physical cooling detail provided; the data does not specify a cooler size or type. Dimensions for length, height, and width are all null, so physical measurements cannot be reported.

FAQ

Q: How much memory does the FireGL 9700 X1-128 have, and what is its bandwidth?

A: It has 128 MB of DDR memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 19.84 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: What APIs does the card support?

A: It supports DirectX 9.0 (9_0) and OpenGL 2.0. No Vulkan support is listed in the data.

Q: Does the card need auxiliary power connectors?

A: No. The power connectors field is "None", and the suggested PSU is 200 W.

Q: What is the manufacturing process and transistor count?

A: It is built on a 150 nm process at TSMC, with 110 million transistors on a 215 mm² die.

Q: Is the card still in production?

A: No, it is end-of-life. Its release date was July 22, 2002.

Q: What display outputs does it provide?

A: It has 2x DVI outputs, and uses an AGP 8x bus interface.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The FACT PACK lists no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores for this card — both fields are null. This means the FireGL 9700 X1-128 offers no dedicated hardware for ray-traced rendering or tensor-based AI workloads. The API support is limited to DirectX 9.0 (9_0) and OpenGL 2.0, with no Vulkan support listed. The R300 architecture provides a fixed-function 3D pipeline with 8 texture mapping units and 8 render output units. The pixel rate of 2.600 GPixel/s and texture rate of 2.600 GTexel/s define the maximum throughput of that fixed-function design. For professional use, the feature set is rounded out by the 2x DVI outputs and the AGP 8x bus interface. Without RT or tensor cores, the card relies entirely on the shader and texture units available in the DirectX 9.0 specification. The absence of Vulkan further confines it to the DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0 API generations. The data does not list any shading unit count, so the programmable pipeline's width is unspecified; only the fixed-function TMU and ROP counts are known.

Memory Subsystem

The FireGL 9700 X1-128 is equipped with 128 MB of DDR memory on a 256-bit bus. The memory clock is 310 MHz, with a 620 Mbps effective data rate, which yields a bandwidth of 19.84 GB/s. The 256-bit bus width is a significant feature — it provides a wide data path that helps move large amounts of data per clock cycle. At high resolutions, a wider bus can mitigate the bandwidth pressure caused by larger framebuffers and higher texture loads. However, the 128 MB capacity is a limiting factor; the data does not specify a maximum resolution, but the small framebuffer would constrain texture-heavy scenes. The bandwidth of 19.84 GB/s is the key figure for streaming texture and geometry data to the 8 TMUs and 8 ROPs. For a professional workstation card of the early DirectX 9 era, the combination of a 256-bit bus and 128 MB of DDR was a balanced choice. The 620 Mbps effective rate indicates double-pumped DDR signaling, which doubles the data rate relative to the 310 MHz clock. At higher resolutions, the wide bus helps maintain fill-rate performance, but the capacity ceiling remains the primary constraint. The memory type is DDR, and no memory overclocking or additional memory configurations are listed in the data.