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<blockquote data-quote="akilar25" data-source="post: 4614253" data-attributes="member: 167921">Introduction&nbsp;High-end video card launches tend to receive the lion's share of the media coverage, but sales of $450-$700 behemoths aren't where the money's at in the video card industry. For all the focus on the 3870X2 and 8800 GT/8800 Ultra in two-, three-, four-, or 64-way SLI configurations, both NVIDIA and ATI sell the bulk of their product and make the majority of their profits at a sub-$200 price point. The 9600GT we're reviewing today is NVIDIA's latest flagship in the $170-$200 price range. &nbsp;NVIDIA's midrange product line was formerly anchored by the 8600 GTS, but that card has become increasingly unattractive over the past several months. ATI's HD 3850 decisively outperformed the 8600 GTS at the same price when it launched last November, while the HD 3870 and 8800GT slotted themselves nicely into the $200-$300 market. With the launch of the 9600GT, NVIDIA plans to retake the midrange market and leave the HD 3850 eating dust. &nbsp; G94: The card, and its corresponding bells and whistles&nbsp; &nbsp; <img src="http://media.arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nvidia-9600gt-review.media/9600GT.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> &nbsp; The 9600GT has some impressive stats for a mid-range card, as indicated by the chart below. Architecturally speaking, the G94 sits much closer to the G92 than the G84 sat to the G80. While G84 was a more efficient architecture than G80, the gap between the two cards was quite significant. With just 1/3 of the G80's streaming processors and 40 percent of its bus width, the 8600 GTS's performance always lagged the 8800GTS 320MB's significantly. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; GPU&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; No. of stream processors&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Core clock speed&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; MHz&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Shader clock speed&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; MhZ&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Memory clock speed&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; MHz&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Bus width&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 9600 GT&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; G94&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 64&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 650&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1625&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 900&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 256-bit&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 8600 GTS&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; G84&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 32&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 675&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1450&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1000&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 128-bit&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 8800 GT&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; G92&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 112&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 600&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1500&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 900&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 256-bit&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; The 9600GT, on the other hand, is made of sterner stuff. It uses the same 256-bit memory bus as the 8800 GT and the 8800 GTS 512, and carries twice the number of SP's that the G84 does. All of these factors should make the performance gap between the 9600 GT and 8800 GT smaller than the gap that existed between the G80-based GPUs—if the card delivers as promised, it should be a potent midrange competitor indeed. &nbsp;One other feature of the 9600 GT that's worth noting is the card's increased 512MB RAM loadout. Neither ATI nor NVIDIA defines a single amount of memory that's &quot;right&quot; for any particular card, but all recent midrange products from both companies have used 256MB of RAM as part of the reference design. NVIDIA's decision to step up to 512MB, in this case, isn't just a marketing ploy to win marketshare—there are games on the market today that've outgrown the 256MB limitation and crater when forced to run at high detail levels with such a small amount of memory.&nbsp; &nbsp;Although the card we're testing today offers a standard set of two dual-link DVI ports, the card is capable of other options. All 9600 GT cards support HDCP and HDMI output via either a DVI adapter or through a native port if the manufacturer provides one, and DisplayPort is natively supported with the 9600 GT. NVIDIA has also included a few new goodies in its PureVideo HD implementation, but we'll examine those separately later in the review.&nbsp; &nbsp; Does the 9600 GT have what it takes to challenge the HD 3850's sweet price/performance ratio?&nbsp; Let's take a look</blockquote>

[QUOTE="akilar25, post: 4614253, member: 167921"] [B]Introduction[/B] High-end video card launches tend to receive the lion's share of the media coverage, but sales of $450-$700 behemoths aren't where the money's at in the video card industry. For all the focus on the 3870X2 and 8800 GT/8800 Ultra in two-, three-, four-, or 64-way SLI configurations, both NVIDIA and ATI sell the bulk of their product and make the majority of their profits at a sub-$200 price point. The 9600GT we're reviewing today is NVIDIA's latest flagship in the $170-$200 price range. NVIDIA's midrange product line was formerly anchored by the 8600 GTS, but that card has become increasingly unattractive over the past several months. ATI's HD 3850 decisively outperformed the 8600 GTS at the same price when it launched last November, while the HD 3870 and 8800GT slotted themselves nicely into the $200-$300 market. With the launch of the 9600GT, NVIDIA plans to retake the midrange market and leave the HD 3850 eating dust. [B] G94: The card, and its corresponding bells and whistles [/B] [IMG]http://media.arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nvidia-9600gt-review.media/9600GT.jpg[/IMG] The 9600GT has some impressive stats for a mid-range card, as indicated by the chart below. Architecturally speaking, the G94 sits much closer to the G92 than the G84 sat to the G80. While G84 was a more efficient architecture than G80, the gap between the two cards was quite significant. With just 1/3 of the G80's streaming processors and 40 percent of its bus width, the 8600 GTS's performance always lagged the 8800GTS 320MB's significantly. [B]GPU[/B] [B]No. of stream processors[/B] [B]Core clock speed [/B]MHz [B]Shader clock speed [/B]MhZ [B]Memory clock speed [/B]MHz [B]Bus width[/B] [B]9600 GT[/B] G94 64 650 1625 900 256-bit [B]8600 GTS[/B] G84 32 675 1450 1000 128-bit [B]8800 GT[/B] G92 112 600 1500 900 256-bit The 9600GT, on the other hand, is made of sterner stuff. It uses the same 256-bit memory bus as the 8800 GT and the 8800 GTS 512, and carries twice the number of SP's that the G84 does. All of these factors should make the performance gap between the 9600 GT and 8800 GT smaller than the gap that existed between the G80-based GPUs—if the card delivers as promised, it should be a potent midrange competitor indeed. One other feature of the 9600 GT that's worth noting is the card's increased 512MB RAM loadout. Neither ATI nor NVIDIA defines a single amount of memory that's "right" for any particular card, but all recent midrange products from both companies have used 256MB of RAM as part of the reference design. NVIDIA's decision to step up to 512MB, in this case, isn't just a marketing ploy to win marketshare—there are games on the market today that've outgrown the 256MB limitation and crater when forced to run at high detail levels with such a small amount of memory. Although the card we're testing today offers a standard set of two dual-link DVI ports, the card is capable of other options. All 9600 GT cards support HDCP and HDMI output via either a DVI adapter or through a native port if the manufacturer provides one, and DisplayPort is natively supported with the 9600 GT. NVIDIA has also included a few new goodies in its PureVideo HD implementation, but we'll examine those separately later in the review. Does the 9600 GT have what it takes to challenge the HD 3850's sweet price/performance ratio? Let's take a look [/QUOTE]

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