no one said that the 9700 was the 9600XT
and besides - putting the names away - look at the technology. I prefer to evaluate hardware by whats inside and not what it is called.
Looking at the 9700 with the drastic processing/fabrcation differences between it and the 8600 -> I can safely assume that though it may not be revolutionary in terms of features, the technology is VERY different from the 9600...
This is sorta like the Prescott vs northwood story - almost same performance but entirely different technologies...yet no one calls the Prescott the northwood XT
and besides - putting the names away - look at the technology. I prefer to evaluate hardware by whats inside and not what it is called.
Looking at the 9700 with the drastic processing/fabrcation differences between it and the 8600 -> I can safely assume that though it may not be revolutionary in terms of features, the technology is VERY different from the 9600...
This is sorta like the Prescott vs northwood story - almost same performance but entirely different technologies...yet no one calls the Prescott the northwood XT
) but it looks better than the radeon 9000 64MB on my ex-sager 5660 
with this observation...
