Nvidia's ninth generation of graphics cards came into being in early 2008. The focus will be on the mid-range chipset - the GeForce 9600 GT. Characteristics, test results, overall impression of the stability of the work - all this you can find below. As a result, you can decide on a budget graphics card.
Appearance story
In 2008, when AMD did their best to release budget video cards, Nvidia only had copies of the top-end version. Thus, they deprived themselves of the largest segment of consumers. The question arose about creating a competitor for the Radeon 3800 Series. First of all, we tried to occupy this niche with the help of a weaker version of the top-end GeForce 8800 graphics card. The amount of video memory was reduced to a ridiculous 256 MB. And the board was released for sale. However, among PC users, this modification of the video card has not gained popularity.
Profit from sales was negligible. That's because the cost of such a top-end chip is high enough to cut its performance and sell at a low price. As a result, the ninth series came to the fore. Initially, production was planned to begin no earlier than a year later. In particular, this refers to the first Geforce 9600 GT. The characteristics of the video card are at an average level: between 8600 and 8800 GTS. From the AMD lineup, the 3800 series became a competitor.
The motto for increasing sales of the 9600 GT was the following phrase: good performance for little money. From the review you will find out whether the statement was confirmed or not about the Nvidia 9600 GT graphics card, whose characteristics are impressive. This graphic chip became the real founder of a whole generation of new chipsets, which brought even greater popularity to the company and significantly expanded its client base both among buyers of high-end hardware and in the middle price segment.
Nvidia 9600 GT: specifications
So, let's figure out what this video card is. The basis for it was the 8800 GTS chipset. Only truncated by parameters. Since the 8800 GTS was just an intermediate development, the technologies of which were later used in 9800. The base for the card was the G94 chipset, the same as in the 8800 series. You may ask: why then does it cost much less and what does the manufacturer save on? The answer is quite simple. The 9600 GT has halved the number of streaming processes compared to the older model. This has significantly reduced the price. But the performance gain was achieved through the use of the same buses with a bit capacity of 256 bits. This allowed us to reach higher processor frequencies and shader processing.
According to the manufacturer, the 9600 GT video card , whose specifications are cut back, is as much as 15% more efficient than the 8800 series. Here is a breakthrough in technology! A little later, we will determine in practical tests: is it true or not. The video card is also equipped with 512 MB of internal memory, support for SLI mode (simultaneous connection to the system of up to three identical video cards working in parallel). It has a DirectX 10 interface and all the necessary connectors for connecting monitors, outputting images to a TV and so on.
External review of the video card
The board has become slightly smaller than its predecessor, mainly due to the simplification of technology. This allows you to install it in fairly tight budget buildings. After all, the 9600 GT (middle-end level characteristics) should correspond to its class, whatever one may say. There are many holes throughout the board that are designed to improve heat transfer. Above it is closed by a plastic case with a radiator and one cooler. This is quite enough to maintain a stable low temperature even at high loads.
Test results
The following stand was installed to conduct tests in games. The process from Intel is a Core 2 Duo, dual-core with a frequency of 3 Hz for each core. In addition, there were 4 GB of RAM, a 750 GB hard drive and an Acbel 500 W power supply. Testing was conducted in those games that were relevant at the time of the release of the 9600 GT graphics card. The characteristics of the bench computer also correspond to that time.
Based on the indicators in the games Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Lost Planet. All of them started with DirectX 10 support and at maximum settings with Full-HD resolution. The first game (Crysis) behaved very badly - only 10 frames per second. Affects the budget model of the video card. In Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, the game produces stable 40 frames per second at maximum settings. This is already good for the average price segment of video chips. In Lost Planet it was comfortable playing on medium or low settings with a maximum screen resolution.
Power Consumption and Acceleration
Let's move on to power consumption. Nvidia engineers managed to reduce power consumption by as much as 15%. The creators show in every way that they belong to the middle class of Nvidia 9600 GT video cards: specifications, power consumption, performance are at a good level for their price. The creators of the video card did not forget about lovers to experiment with their hardware. Overclocking capabilities decided not to touch. Therefore, at their own peril and risk, owners can try to create a real monster and conqueror of modern games from a board with average performance.