well i decided to jump on the 9600GT bandwagon. Hopefully this will get my framerate out of the teens in SupCom

It seems the 9600GT uses the PCI-express frequency as reference, instead of a crystal of it's own. So if the PCIe frequency is above specs (above 100MHz) you will overclock the card. I didn't see that in the review, but maybe I missed it.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=254944

NOOOO not the US quarter again :o

;)

Does it seem weird to anyone else that ATI had a 9600 way back in 2002?

Well, I have the same problem as these guys: After about 1 hour of gaming, blank screen, hard reboot required.

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t60826.html

Temps OK, power supply more than adequate, etc. It is mentioned the firmware has a known issue and we have to wait for weeks to get it fixed!?!? WTH?

Good thing it works fine with my CAD software, or I would be hosed.

Did Damage labs see any of this while playing?

-Mark

Damage you need to do some digging and figure out how with so many fewer shaders this GPU stays so close to the 8800GT and even GTS at times. Is the G90 series architecture just not bound by shader operations as much and it's just memory bandwidth that holds it back? Have the shaders been improved that much? Do current games just not need the shader power? The last few GPU articles have been lacking in the excrutiating details that used to be included, I think you said once that NV 'is being tight-lipped' so please hit up your anonymous sources :)

I like the low power draw, I'm a little irked about getting an 8800GTS recently though because the specs for this card before it was released didn't make it seem near as impressive as the real results.

given the power draw and temperature, it looks like they could have easily made this card a single-slotter. this would be especially important for a compact gaming rig (mATX) where a 2-slot cooler automatically means you've lost an extra 25% of your expansion slots.

wrong comments area...oops

I'm really impressed by this.

I've been gaming less and less which means my video card has been idling more and more.

So for me the big thing has been power consumption first, performance second. I really liked the 3870 because of this, but man, this card is the card to get. Amazing power consumption, and for all intensive purposes, 8800GT performance. Hmmmm, the 'ol 7900GT may be up for sale soon...

Well it goes to show how aggressive NV and ATI are trying to be in the mid-range segment. It also could mean that none of these cards will last long as "the bargain". 8800GT and 38x0 just got demoted... when will 9600GT's time come? :)

Installed mine last night, all I can say is "wow" at the performance increase from my 6600 card. Maxed out all the games I own (all three) and took a look. Now I know what I was missing! Not to mention my UT2K3 scores went way up, so it wasn't entirely my bad skills making me stink.

One problem I had... Under UT2K3 the fan never spun faster than idle, but the temperature soared up, which caused the card to crash the computer. Not pleasant. Turns out I didn't have the latest drivers on the installation disk, but I haven't re-tested with the new drivers yet.

Needless to say, I am pleased as it is one heck of a jump from the 6600 and the borrowed 7600. During idle it is as cool as a cucumber, and for that alone I am pleased.

-LS

hopefully the 9800 series will be like night and day just like when the 8800 followed the 8600 series. I do like the fact that the power is better optimised. Nobody really wants to run a 1kw psu. whats next? 10600GT?

interesting to see how the 3850 power draw has creeped up to 3870 levels with increased clocks and memory (which seems to pretty much turn it into a 3870) - one of the main draws of the 3850 for me was it's low power consumption in idle. Now there's not much point other than price for going with the 3850 over the 9600GT. Hmm.

Back with a vengeance after the flu Aye Scott???? No sign of it here great work as usual..

I have a few things to bring up..

I'd love to see minimum power supply requirement numbers. You used to include that back in the day.

Second... The 9600 GT is replacing the 8600 GT Correct????? Than why is the card TWICE THE SIZE and now requires a molex power connector and quite probably a 450 Watt PSU???? I have a second rig with an 8600 GT that is using a 300 Watt PSU... It's too much of a pain to upgrade to a 9600 since now I'd have to buy a larger power supply rather than simply swapping cards. Sorry but Nvidia messed this up In my opinion. The 8600 GT may be half the card performance wise but it's much more convenient to install.

It would have been nice to see benchies with todays Fastest 8600 GT's whose clocks have risen CONSIDERABLY since techreport's last 8600 review. My 8600 GT has a core of 680 mhz and Memory of 1600mhz! I wanted to see how much more performance the 9600 GT provides VS the 8600 GT and weigh wheather it's worth it to go through all of the above installation and expsense issues. (I'd have to spend another $50 or $60 on a Power supply on TOP of the card and than worry about potentially screwing up the power supply surgery).

Those SLI numbers are seriously impressive, kudos to Nvidia for getting it right. Maybe people should stop calling it a gimmick since it could easily be seen as a logical upgrade path.

And I wish techreport would include a 3dmark score at the default resolution for comparisons sake.

The 9600GT + a passive Accelero S1 slapped on there would be an excellent combo, it appears.

Very Nice Review!

I'm surprised by those SLI numbers. The pervading logic up until recently is that it's not worth it to SLI a cheaper card, but the 9600GT scales nicely and compares well to more expensive competition.

My 7800GTX cried as I read this review

Well crap. Got an 8800GT for $250, and now you're telling me this card performs practically equal to it? And for $70 less?

*headbutts desk repeatedly*

This thing was WAY closer to the 8800GT in performance than I initially thought it'd be...I guess 112 stream processors is overkill today, though as you note in the conclusion, that may change in the future. Very impressive for a $170 card...I'd expect the 8800GT to get the boot when the 9800GTX comes out, as it's really not any faster than the 9600GT for most folks.

Nvidia's GeForce 9600 GT looks to topple the Radeon HD 3850 as the king of the sub-$200 price range.

The Radeon HD 3870 can be had for less then 200 bucks.

I'd be interested in seeing a little more information about how smoothly the card functions when added to a HTPC setup and paired with a TVTuner of some sort. There's always a lot of focus on establishing the performance of the GPU in gaming scenerios, but sometimes I'm more interested in the other features of the cards reviewed. Sure it plays Quake2 at a billion FPS, but that is not always the only reason I buy a video card.

TR's reviews are amung the best avaible.

Thanks for the great review, I am buying a replacement for my ailing 7900GTX.. I was torn between a 8800GT and GTS, but now I don't know..

edit: 20$ CDN diff between the Palit Sonic 9600 and their stock clock 8800GT, damn!

EP

Thank you for including the 8800GT and GTS 512 in the collection. Anandtech's review only included results from the 3850, 3870, and the 8600, so you missed that last piece showing the price/performance ratio with the 8800 series.

Wow, it looks like price/performance is making somewhat of comeback.

It's a shame I don't play many PC games anymore. And the ones I do play alot of work perfectly on a 3dfx Voodoo 3.

It's good to see greener cards coming out :)

I LOVE THE PICTURE STRIP ABOVE THE COMMENTS!!!!

That thing about GDDR4 memory interested me - does that mean that GDDR4 memory is actually worse than GDDR3 for practical purposes?

versus 8800 GS?

:(

Damn! That kind of performance coupled with such low power draw and load temps is simply awesome!
I game at 1680*1050 with my 8800GT. At that resolution, there should no discernible difference between 8800GT and 9600GT yet the 9600GT simply blows away the 8800GT when you compare those load temps!