Features

     Some of the features of the Radeon 9800 are the capability to become everything but a tuner card. With DVI capability, Smartshader, and a full hardware assortment of adapters to create a multimedia capable PC, the FIC 9800 Pro delivers.

     An attractive but simple box (above) is all you need to go fast. I have seen a lot of different video card manufacturers spend a lot of time and finances on their video card boxes, but this reviewer only cares about what's inside the box.

     FIC includes PowerDVD in their software bundle which oddly enough has ATI drivers! no proprietary drivers here. Somebody is finally listening to the enthusiast! If you think about it what use do bundled drivers have when ATI comes out with new drivers at least once a month! A S-Video cable, ATX power connection, DVI adapter, and RCA cable are also part of the bundle. I can't think of anything else that needs to be considered as part of my next purchase...

     The back of the Radeon 9800 Pro is pictured here. Notice the single slot platform here. During testing this card ran roughly 15C less under sever benchmarking than out test bed FX5900 with a huge HSF and noisy fan.

     This is most likely why this card runs so cool. FIC took notice and actually used a metallic based thermal compound on the HSF. Is it Arctic Silver? Of course the small micron ATI 350 core helps...