Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT: Features and Overview

GeForce 9600 - mid-end video cardsegment from the Californian company Nvidia. In this article we will analyze all the pros and cons of this chip, find out whether its cost is justified, and also conduct some tests that will help determine the performance and stability of the chipset.

How did the map appear?

In 2008, AMD presented a series of 3800,which occupied the niche of video cards middle-end. For a small cost, the buyer received excellent performance. In this category AMD did not have a competitor. Nvidia thought about creating a mid-price video card with good performance, in order to discourage part of the market from a competitive company.

The attempt to leave on the weakened flagship 8800 GT failed due to the reduction of video memory. The cost price of such cards is quite high, which in the end gave too little profit from one video card.

The engineers of the company decided tocreating the perfect new platform G94, on which the GeForce 9600 was created. Let's see if the decision of the company is justified, or did Nvidia deceive themselves, as in the case of the "lightweight" 8800? To get started, let's get acquainted with the characteristics.

GeForce 9600: Features

The basis for the video card is the new architectureG94, which is the direct successor of the 8800 series platform. According to the architecture, this chipset is between the average 8600 and the higher 8800. The number of stream processors is more than twice that of the first, but less than the second.

The new technology allowed to keep the bit capacitytires in 256 bits and thus leave the performance at a good level. According to the characteristics of the video card is hardly inferior to the flagship. Its throughput is increased by 15% compared to the previous generation. The simplification of architecture allowed to save on the production of a video card.

GeForce 9600 supports all knowninterfaces that were relevant at the time the board was released. DirectX9 and DirectX10 are also present. The card is connected to the motherboard via an absolutely standard PCI Express 16 connector. The number of internal memory is 512 MB. The Nvidia GeForce 9600 driver is updated to this day, and the video card supports the latest versions, which is a big plus for the owners of these cards.

Completion of video card

The standard version of the chipset includesthe usual set of everything necessary. In addition to the card itself, in the box you will find adapters for various interfaces, a CD with drivers, instructions and a warranty card on the GeForce 9600 GT. Feedback about the video card is very positive. For modest money, no one required a rich bundle for this "iron".

Appearance

For its price, the hardware of the video card looksrich enough. A small board has cooling in the form of one cooler and a radiator. From above all this is covered with a plastic casing. Looks expensive and stylish. One question remains: how will GeForce 9600 behave in practice?

Testing and results

To conduct tests in 3DMark andactual at that time games was assembled test stand with a special configuration. Based on the game motherboard from the company MSI, which will withstand the most serious load during testing. The processor from Intel (Core 2 Duo dual-core with a frequency of 2.9 GHz per core) was also chosen not casually for testing the GeForce 9600 GT. Reviews say that video cards from Nvidia open their potential 100% with Intel processors, not AMD. The power supply in the computer is set to 750 watts.

Competitors

Compare our subject with two competitivevideo cards from AMD. This HD 3850 and 3870. Both boards are in the price category up to $ 200. All 3 video cards are built on roughly the same architecture, the memory capacity of each of them is 512 MB.

The first test was the application 3DMArk. In it, the tested video card is slightly inferior to the competitor HD 3870, but it keeps at the same level with the video card 3850. Next are the tests in the games, topical in 2008 - Prey, Crysis, Company of Heroes and classic Serious Sam 2.

The first two games are a real test formost video cards. Prey, surprisingly, behaved very vigorously on all the video cards that participate in the testing. FPS did not fall at the maximum settings and Full-HD resolution is less than 150-160 frames per second.

Crysis is a stretch, but still does not slow down. All video cards produce stable 30 frames per second, which is quite enough for a comfortable game. However, to do this, you need to slightly reduce the settings or make a smaller resolution. The video card from AMD (HD 3870) shows itself a little better - about 5-10 frames per second.

The next test is the Company of Heroes. Quite a demanding game, which requires a lot of hardware resources of the computer. Video cards do it only on average settings. On the maximum schedule the program gives out non-winning 15-20 frames per second.

Proceed to Serious Sam 2. Strangely enough, in this game the GeForce 9600 graphics card bypasses the performance of competitors from AMD by about 20-25 frames per second. However, all representatives issue more than 100 FBS, so the difference does not play any role. Recall that all tests were conducted on the operating system Windows Vista specifically to support the interface DirectX10. If you use the video card on DirectX9, the results will be even better and higher. All the same, this mid-range video card is not suitable for full-fledged deployment of DirectX10 capabilities in the most top-end games.

Verdict

The GeForce 9600 GT is a great option forthose who want to try on their "hardware" all the charms of DirectX10 and do not pay a lot of money for top-end chipsets. For ordinary users who did not chase for better performance, this option was inferior to competitors from AMD. Their video cards cost $ 20-30 less, but they gave exactly the same performance as the 9600 GT. Engineers from Nvidia developed this video card only for monetary benefits, and not for the development of the model range. This can be seen in obsolete technologies and reduced parameters for lowering prices and artificial conquest of the middle segment.