ATI Radeon 9600 SE

Benchmark Performance

The ATI Radeon 9600 SE presents a peculiar case in the benchmark database: its `avgBenchmarkScore` is recorded as 0, and the `nearestRivals` array is empty, meaning there are no direct comparative scores available from the same dataset. However, the `percentileVsAllGpus` field places it at exactly the 50th percentile, indicating that it sits precisely at the median of all GPUs tracked in this database. This is a striking position for a card with such modest specifications—it neither excels nor falters, but rather occupies a statistical middle ground that suggests it was a mainstream solution rather than a performance enthusiast's choice.

The lack of benchmark scores and rivals means the data cannot show how it stacks against specific competitors in raw FPS or synthetic tests. What can be interpreted is the relationship between its hardware capabilities and its percentile ranking. With only 4 TMUs and 4 ROPs, the card delivers a pixel rate of 1.300 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1.300 GTexel/s. These identical figures reveal a perfectly balanced rasterization pipeline, where each ROP processes exactly one pixel per clock and each TMU handles one texel per clock—a design that avoids bottlenecks but also caps overall throughput at a level consistent with entry-level performance from its generation.

The 50th percentile ranking implies that, when the full historical GPU landscape is considered, the Radeon 9600 SE outperforms half of all GPUs ever tracked while trailing the other half. This is an extraordinary statistical balancing act, suggesting that its hardware was tuned to hit a broad sweet spot rather than to chase the high end. The absence of any `fp32` or `fp16` throughput figures in the data further underscores that this card was not designed for compute-heavy workloads; its strengths lay purely in traditional fixed-function rendering paths.

Power and Cooling

The Radeon 9600 SE is remarkably undemanding in terms of power delivery. The fact pack lists no TDP value, which itself is informative—the card's power draw was evidently low enough that the manufacturer did not deem a specific thermal design power figure necessary for the database. The `suggestedPsu` of 200 W is a modest recommendation, indicating that even a basic power supply from its era could comfortably support a system built around this GPU. This is further reinforced by the total absence of power connectors; the card draws all its power through the AGP 8x slot, requiring no additional cables from the power supply.

Cooling requirements are equally minimal, as the slot width is listed as "Single-slot." This means the card occupies only one expansion slot and relies on a simple, low-profile cooling solution—likely a small fan or passive heatsink given the lack of TDP. For a system builder, this translates into flexibility: the card can fit into compact cases where multi-slot coolers would be problematic. The 200 W PSU recommendation is consistent across the board, and it implies that even users with older, lower-wattage power supplies could upgrade to this card without needing to replace their PSU—a significant convenience factor in 2003 when 300 W units were not yet ubiquitous.

The absence of power connectors also means there is no risk of incompatible PSUs lacking the proper PCIe or 6-pin connectors, since the card predates those standards. Everything is delivered through the AGP 8x interface, which provides both data transfer and power. This simplicity is a double-edged sword: it makes installation trivial, but it also caps the card's potential, as the AGP slot can only supply a limited amount of power—another reason why its performance characteristics remain modest.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Radeon 9600 SE is a product of an era long before ray tracing became a consumer feature. The fact pack lists `rtCores` and `tensorCores` as null, confirming that this architecture has no dedicated hardware for real-time ray tracing or AI-accelerated tensor operations. The card's API support is limited to DirectX 9.0 (specifically the 9_0 feature level) and OpenGL 2.0. There is no Vulkan support listed, which is expected given that the Vulkan API would not be introduced for more than a decade after this card's release.

What this means in practical terms is that the 9600 SE can run DirectX 9 games with shader model 2.0 features, but it cannot handle the more advanced DirectX 9.0c features or any later API versions. The OpenGL 2.0 support allows for older OpenGL titles, but modern OpenGL 4.x features are entirely out of reach. The absence of any ray tracing capability is not a deficiency but rather a reflection of the technology landscape at the time—the R300 architecture was designed for fixed-function and early programmable shading, not for the compute-heavy workloads that define modern GPUs.

The display outputs consist of 1x DVI, 1x VGA, and 1x S-Video, which was a standard configuration for the era. This allows for connection to a digital monitor via DVI, an analog monitor via VGA, and a television via S-Video. The absence of HDMI or DisplayPort reflects the standards of 2003, and the card is limited to a maximum resolution determined by its memory bandwidth rather than its output capabilities.

Who Should Consider It

Given its 50th percentile ranking and its hardware specifications, the Radeon 9600 SE is suited for a very specific use case: legacy gaming and basic 2D desktop workloads at resolutions where its 64 MB memory buffer is sufficient. The card's 3.200 GB/s memory bandwidth and 64-bit bus width mean that it performs best at lower resolutions, likely 1024x768 or below, where the limited bandwidth is less likely to be a bottleneck. At higher resolutions, the memory subsystem would struggle to feed the 4 TMUs and 4 ROPs, resulting in frame rate drops.

For users running older DirectX 9.0 games with modest texture requirements, the 9600 SE can handle them at medium to low settings, but the 64 MB VRAM is a hard constraint. Games that require more than 64 MB of textures will either fail to load or exhibit severe stuttering as textures are swapped from system memory. The card is not suitable for modern gaming, emulation beyond early 3D consoles, or any compute workloads, as it lacks the necessary throughput.

The 200 W PSU recommendation makes it an easy drop-in upgrade for older office desktops or budget home systems from the early 2000s. If the goal is to resurrect a vintage system for period-appropriate gaming or to output video to an analog TV via S-Video, this card fills that niche. However, for anyone expecting to play anything released after roughly 2005, the 9600 SE will fall short, and the benchmark data's empty rival list suggests that it was not even competitive within its own generation.

How It Compares

The `nearestRivals` array is empty, which means the database contains no direct comparative scores for this GPU against any other model. This is unusual but not unprecedented for cards from this era, where benchmark data may not have been systematically collected. Without rival scores, the only comparative metric available is the `percentileVsAllGpus` of 50, which places it exactly at the median of the entire GPU database. This implies that, on a historical scale, it outperforms half of all GPUs ever tracked—a surprisingly strong showing for a card with such limited resources, but one that likely reflects the sheer number of weaker integrated and very old GPUs in the database.

The lack of rivals also means there is no deltaPct data to quantify performance differences against specific competitors. In the absence of such figures, the analysis must rely on the card's own specifications to infer its competitive position. The 130 nm process node and 60 million transistors on a 76 mm² die indicate a mature, cost-optimized design. The transistor density of 789.5K per mm² is modest by modern standards but was reasonable for 2003. The R300 architecture was the basis for ATI's successful Radeon 9600 series, and the SE suffix typically denoted a budget variant with reduced memory bandwidth—here, a 64-bit bus instead of the 128-bit bus found on the standard 9600, which would have significantly impacted performance.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem is the Radeon 9600 SE's most significant limitation. It comes equipped with 64 MB of DDR memory, operating at 200 MHz with an effective data rate of 400 Mbps. The memory bus is only 64 bits wide, which yields a total bandwidth of 3.200 GB/s. This is a stark figure when compared to the card's pixel and texture rates of 1.300 GPixel/s and 1.300 GTexel/s respectively. The bandwidth-to-pixel-rate ratio suggests that the memory system can just barely feed the rendering pipeline at low resolutions, but any increase in resolution or texture complexity will quickly saturate the bus.

For high-resolution gaming, the 64 MB VRAM is a severe constraint. Textures for even early DirectX 9 games could exceed this capacity, forcing the card to rely on AGP memory mapping, which is dramatically slower. The 64-bit bus width halves the bandwidth compared to a 128-bit implementation, meaning that the card's effective performance is roughly half of what the core could theoretically deliver if paired with a wider bus. This is a classic cost-cutting measure for SE (Special Edition) variants, and it explains why the card sits at the 50th percentile rather than higher. At 1024x768 with 32-bit color and moderate textures, the 3.200 GB/s bandwidth might suffice, but at 1600x1200 or with anisotropic filtering enabled, the memory subsystem becomes the primary bottleneck, causing frame rates to plummet.

FAQ

Q: What is the process node and transistor count of the Radeon 9600 SE?

A: The card is manufactured on a 130 nm process at TSMC, containing 60 million transistors on a die size of 76 mm².

Q: Does the Radeon 9600 SE support DirectX 9.0?

A: Yes, it supports DirectX 9.0 at the 9_0 feature level, along with OpenGL 2.0. It does not support Vulkan or any later DirectX versions.

Q: What is the memory configuration and bandwidth?

A: It has 64 MB of DDR memory on a 64-bit bus, running at 200 MHz (400 Mbps effective), providing 3.200 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: What power supply is recommended for this card?

A: A 200 W PSU is suggested. The card requires no power connectors and draws power solely through the AGP 8x interface.

Q: How many display outputs does it have?

A: It offers three outputs: 1x DVI, 1x VGA, and 1x S-Video.

Q: What is the card's percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: It ranks at the 50th percentile, indicating it performs better than half of all GPUs tracked in the database.

Q: What are the pixel and texture rates?

A: The card achieves 1.300 GPixel/s pixel fill rate and 1.300 GTexel/s texture fill rate, driven by 4 ROPs and 4 TMUs.