Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT: Features and Overview

GeForce 9600 is an average price segment video card from the Kaliningrad 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 of the 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-end 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 to create 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 with the "light" 8800? First, let's look at the characteristics.

GeForce 9600: Features

The basis for the video card is the new architecture G94, which is the direct heir of the platform 8800 series. 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 width of 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.

The GeForce 9600 supports all known interfaces that were relevant at the time of the board's release. 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 being 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 includes a completely normal set of everything you need. In addition to the card, 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 looks rather rich. 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 the application 3DMark and relevant at the time the 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 each core) is also chosen not accidentally 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 competitive video cards from AMD. This HD 3850 and 3870. Both boards are in the price category up to 200 dollars. 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 3850 video card. Next are the tests in the games, actual in 2008 - Prey, Crysis, Company of Heroes and classic Serious Sam 2.

The first two games are a real test for most video cards. Prey, surprisingly, behaved very vigorously on all 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 for this purpose it is necessary to lower a little adjustment or to make the permission less. The video card from AMD (HD 3870) shows itself a bit 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.

Turning 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 will 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 video card is an excellent option for those who want to try all the charms of DirectX10 on their hardware 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 were 20-30 dollars cheaper, but produced 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.