The Sapphire Radeon 9500/128 DVI-I and TV-out look good. If I haven't used G400/550 before, I would think that is good enough.
As it was mentioned above, the ATI Catalyst control panel really sucks. Probably that programmed formula for Gamma, Color, Contrast is correct. But the signal intensity range of Radeon 9500 (so does 8500) is NOT as wide as the one of G400/G550. The desktop and video image colors shown on the screen have telled the difference between G400/G550 and Radeon 9500. Thus it does not need to mention the TV-out part. But I don't have a chance to test Component Video output quality since the adapter needs to be purchased separately. Some reviews point out that its Component video out is quite good. If so, I might take a try since my TV is capable of 480i input. I wish Matrox next generation graphics card above $150 can support this feature, too.
Thank to the same layout as Radeon 9700 for the current Radeon 9500/128 OEM version, it has the similar memory bandwidth comparable to Parhelia. It does not seem there is any performance penalty to do the clone TV-out in 3D mode at all, along with the 1024x768x32bpp 4xFSAA running all kind of demos and games.
The overlay video is not jaggy at 1600x1200x32bpp 85Hz at all. On the other hand, it is impossible for G400/G550 to do that. It might be the fact that 256bit 275MHz DDRSDRAM bandwidth can do anything. (G400 128bit 166MHz SDR-SDRAM, G550 64bit 166MHz DDRSDRAM ... )
I am out of luck that 9500->9700 does not work for my board.
But it is kind of unbelievable that the core speed can reach 350MHz without any special cooling. Unfortunately, P4-1.5 is not powerful enough to drive this GPU at 350MHz. It seems only the P4-2.4 above can just let the extreme fast GPU to show their 90~100% performance.
Will it replace my G550? Of course not. Even though its 3D performance is good enough, and 2D, Video playback speed, quality are above the average, I still prefer G550 being used in my 2D work.
In this situation that Parhelia is still to expensive, I choose Radeon 9500/128 as my 3D use with simultaneous TV-out function since the price is just around $170 and I am not a hard-core gamer. Some lucky guys might have the chance to get the extra performance bonus as Radeon9700 with the same price
As it was mentioned above, the ATI Catalyst control panel really sucks. Probably that programmed formula for Gamma, Color, Contrast is correct. But the signal intensity range of Radeon 9500 (so does 8500) is NOT as wide as the one of G400/G550. The desktop and video image colors shown on the screen have telled the difference between G400/G550 and Radeon 9500. Thus it does not need to mention the TV-out part. But I don't have a chance to test Component Video output quality since the adapter needs to be purchased separately. Some reviews point out that its Component video out is quite good. If so, I might take a try since my TV is capable of 480i input. I wish Matrox next generation graphics card above $150 can support this feature, too.
Thank to the same layout as Radeon 9700 for the current Radeon 9500/128 OEM version, it has the similar memory bandwidth comparable to Parhelia. It does not seem there is any performance penalty to do the clone TV-out in 3D mode at all, along with the 1024x768x32bpp 4xFSAA running all kind of demos and games.

The overlay video is not jaggy at 1600x1200x32bpp 85Hz at all. On the other hand, it is impossible for G400/G550 to do that. It might be the fact that 256bit 275MHz DDRSDRAM bandwidth can do anything. (G400 128bit 166MHz SDR-SDRAM, G550 64bit 166MHz DDRSDRAM ... )
I am out of luck that 9500->9700 does not work for my board.

Will it replace my G550? Of course not. Even though its 3D performance is good enough, and 2D, Video playback speed, quality are above the average, I still prefer G550 being used in my 2D work.
In this situation that Parhelia is still to expensive, I choose Radeon 9500/128 as my 3D use with simultaneous TV-out function since the price is just around $170 and I am not a hard-core gamer. Some lucky guys might have the chance to get the extra performance bonus as Radeon9700 with the same price

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