Martin R wrote:
I'm thinking of buying either a Sapphire Radeon 9200SE or a Sapphire
Atlantis Radeon 9600Pro. I want a quiet card with good 2d performance,
as I plan on using Painter/Photoshop in 1600x1200 most of the time.

My questions a

1. Is the 9600Pro fan noisy? (The computer I have now is almost
completely quiet).

Hi Martin,

I have a Sapphire 9000 Pro card and its fan was the nosiest part of the
system, so I had to remove the fan and install a bigger heatsink
(Zalman's) and a slow big fan nearby. I had a chance to compare this
card directly with Matrox Millenium G450 (famous for its 2D quality) and
the 2D quality is only a little worse at high refresh rates (but Matrox
has awfully functioning multimedia features). Now I use this Sapphire
card with a Philips 109P4 19" monitor at 1152x864@100 Hz and the picture
is almost as sharp as on LCD's (it is even sharper at 85 Hz, but I
prefer higher refresh rates).

I don't understand why you consider so different cards - one of the
lowest budget type and one much more expensive. Take a look at 9200
(withous SE). And remember, at such a high resolution and refresh rate,
you have to have a good cable between your PC and monitor.

Best wishes,

Piotr