eVGA 9600 GT review

INTRODUCTION

Today we have news to share as NVIDIA is launching its first Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) based on the GeForce 9 Series - the GeForce 9600 GT. Building on the success of the unified architecture present on the GeForce 8, the GeForce 9 Series features enhanced compression technology, which reduces the amount of data that passes through the memory bus. Graphics cards with the GeForce 9600 GT are targeted at the mainstream segment with a suggested price between $169 and $189.

Card Front

NVIDIA has traditionally debuted new GPUs with a high-end offering, but there are a number of reasons why they chose to launch a new product line with a mid-range GPU. The most sensible is to fill a gap between the GeForce 8800 GT and GeForce 8600 GT to better compete with the Radeon HD 3850.

Box Front

The GeForce 9600 GT also represents the first mainstream GPU from NVIDIA that launched with a 256-bit memory bus. Although the mainstream GeForce 7900 GT launched with a 256-bit memory bus, which is a key factor in overall 3D graphics performance, that GPU was near the end of a product cycle.

EVGA's E-GEFORCE 9600 GT SSC

In support of today's launch EVGA provided us with their e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC graphics card for evaluation. The product and accessories are packaged in an eye-catching orange colored box that features a gold ribbon touting EVGA as the number one seller of NVIDIA based products in the U.S.

Box Back

Accessories

The graphics card is protected in a sturdy plastic enclosure and includes the typical accessories - a 6-pin PCI-E power cable, two DVI-to-VGA adapters, HDTV and S-Video cables, a couple of case stickers, a user's guide and a driver installation CD with trial software.

SPECIFICATIONS

Reference specifications of the GeForce 9600 GT consist of a core clock speed of 650MHz, a 1,625MHz shader clock, and memory clocked at 900MHz or 1,800MHz effective. The GPU has 64 stream processors that interface with 512MB of GDDR3 memory across a 256-bit memory bus.

GPU-Z Report

Based on the GPU-Z report, we find that the core of EVGA's SSC model is highly overclocked at 740MHz, while the shader and memory are moderately overclocked at 1835MHz and 975MHz respectively.

TEST SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

Pictured below is the test system with the EVGA e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC installed. Note that the enclosure is a Lian Li V1000, which has the motherboard positioned in a direction opposite traditional enclosures.

Graphics Card Installed

Test System

Hardware and Operating System

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 - 3.0GHz Conroe Core - 4MB L2 Cache - 1333MHz FSB
• BFG nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
• 4GB Corsair XMS PC8500 DDR2 SDRAM 5-5-5-18-2T @ 400MHz
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
• PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR Power Supply
• Lian Li V1000 Enclosure
• Dell 3007WFP LCD Monitor
• Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 / DirectX 9.0c

Graphics Cards, Drivers, and Driver Settings

• EVGA e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC - 740MHz Core / 1835MHz Shader / 975MHz Memory (1950MHz Effective)
• Inno3D GeForce 9600 GT - 700MHz Core / 1680MHz Shader / 950MHz Memory (1900MHz Effective)
• GeForce 8800 GT - 700MHz Core / 1500MHz Shader / 1000MHz Memory (2000MHz Effective)
• GeForce 7900 GS - 500MHz Core / 690MHz Memory (1380MHz Effective)
• ForceWare Beta 174.12 - GeForce 9600 GT
• ForceWare Beta 169.28 - GeForce 8800 GT and GeForce 7900 GS
• 32-Bit Color
• Vsync Disabled
• 60Hz Refresh Rate
• High Quality Texture Filtering
• Gamma Correct Antialiasing

Test Applications

• BioShock
• Call of Duty 4
• Crysis
• Far Cry
• F.E.A.R.
• Oblivion
• Quake 4
• STALKER
• The Witcher

Notes

• Antialiasing was set to "Override any application setting" in the driver for Oblivion.
• Anisotropic filtering was set to 8x in the driver for Oblivion.

• PERFORMANCE VS. GEFORCE 8800 GT - 1680x1050

  In the following series of tests the GeForce 9600 GT goes head-to-head with the exceedingly popular GeForce 8800 GT. Results for the resolution of 1680x1050 are provided on this page, while the results for the 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 resolutions appear on the next two pages.

  Specs Comparison

  Far Cry's Regulator level continues to be a useful benchmark as it allows a variety of graphics card features to be tested such as 4x and 8x antialiasing, High Dynamic Range (HDR), and multisampling (MSTAA) and supersampling (SSTAA) transparency antialiasing.

  In Far Cry, the GeForce 9600 GT performed exceptionally well when compared to the GeForce 8800 GT as the average frame rate fell behind the GeForce 8800 GT by an average of only 9%. The lead increased slightly for the GeForce 8800 GT when HDR rendering or image quality enhancements like transparency antialiasing were enabled.

  Performance at 1680x1050

  The next two charts provide benchmark results for the remaining games that were tested. As with Far Cry, it was uncanny that the average frame rate of the GeForce 9600 GT again came within 9% of the GeForce 8800 GT. However, greater variances occurred in shader intensive operations that were present in F.E.A.R. (with soft shadows) and Crysis (with medium settings), both of which were 20% faster on the GeForce 8800 GT.

  Performance at 1680x1050

  Performance at 1680x1050

  At 1680x1050, the minimum frame rate dipped below 30 fps on the GeForce 9600 GT in the following tests:

  Avg: 42 Min: 29 fps - Oblivion - 4x AA - MSTAA - HDR
  Avg: 42 Min: 23 fps - Oblivion - 4x AA - SSTAA - HDR
  Avg: 45 Min: 21 fps - Far Cry - 8x AA - SSTAA
  Avg: 26 Min: 19 fps - Crysis - No AA - High Quality