2. What The Heck Is A Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo, Anyway?

The Mobility Radeon 9600's specifications have already been made well-known through our previous reviews and in Mobile Graphics: DX9 on the Go . MR 9600, MR 9600 Pro and the MR 9600 Pro Turbo that Dell offers in its notebooks only differ in minimum core clock and minimum memory clock speeds, as well as in video memory size.

According to ATI, the Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro has a core clock of at least 333 MHz, and the video memory is at least 64 MB. The Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo's graphics processor has a core clock speed of at least 333 MHz, a memory clock speed of at least 240 MHZ and has 128 MB of video at its disposal. Thus, all MR 9600 graphics processors with a clock speed of less than 333 MHz are considered standard Mobility Radeon 9600s, without the additional "Pro" or "Turbo" in their nomenclature.

According to ATI's specifications, a Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo is humming along in the test device.

However, we think the labeling scheme is more than just confusing. At the very least, ATI should in the future make sure that, at a minimum, the clock speeds of their different products are communicated up front.