Future Electronic Technology: GeForce 9600 GT Showdown

Introduction

After the mostly disappointing GeForce 8600 series last year, it was about time that NVIDIA returned to form in the mid-range segment and the new GeForce 9600 GT promises to do just that and revive the glory days of the GeForce 6 and 7 mid-range series. Based on the G94 core and hence belonging to the same successful pedigree as the GeForce 8800 GT, NVIDIA's new mid-range card threatens to spoil ATI's party by competing against the latter's Radeon HD 3800 series. With ATI responding with a round of price cuts to preserve its advantage, it seems like an excellent time for bargain hunting.

However, we won't get into the merits of going with ATI or NVIDIA today. Instead, the well-oiled NVIDIA machine and its many board partners have arranged to send us a bunch of shiny new GeForce 9600 GT cards and there are as many variations as there are brands. Which of course means that we have rounded them up in our usual shootout format. Who will be the champ of the new mid-range GeForce 9?

An important feature on these boards that we should mention first is that many vendors have utilized the audio input headers (S/PDIF) on the GeForce 9600 GT to splice the audio stream (from your motherboard or soundcard) to the video stream within the graphics card, thereby allowing these cards to output audio and video through a single HDMI cable. These cards then either have a HDMI port or include a DVI-to-HDMI adapter. From what we saw, not every vendor has bundled the necessary cables but consumers should be able to source the cables and adapters and enable this audio integration themselves if required.

ASUS EN9600 GT

ASUS' Glaciator cooler makes another appearance here and having known its quiet and cool performance, it was no surprise that it was superior to the reference design The catch as usual is that this cooler will take up more space than the single slot reference design but we doubt consumers will be too concerned with this. The clock speeds on this card however are the standard 650MHz for the core and 1800MHz for the GDDR3, as is the board design.

The ASUS Glaciator heatsink is the standout factor for this ordinary GeForce 9600 GT.

Quiet and cool, there is nothing much to dislike about the Glaciator. Conversely, it doesn't seem to be a unique cooler and similar designs can be seen from other brands.

The included package is quite decent despite lacking any frills like games or applications. At least all the expected accessories and cables are present. ASUS has quoted a standard retail price of S$299, which is in line with quite a few reference boards from other brands despite its third party cooler. Here's what we found:
- Driver CD
- Installation guide
- User manual (on CD)
- DVI-to-VGA adaptor
- DVI-to-HDMI adaptor
- 6-pin Molex power connector
- 7-pin mini-DIN to Component dongle
- S/PDIF cable

Gigabyte GV-NX96T512H-B

Not every vendor has custom designs so close to launch day and Gigabyte is one of the many who only have the standard NVIDIA based board at the moment. That means standard clock and memory speeds and somewhat disappointingly, there is also no bundled game (like the company's recent favorite, Neverwinter Nights 2). Perhaps this lack of extras reflects the mainstream nature of this product, though at a local retail price of S$299, it's not exactly the cheapest option found.

The accessories and cables are also on the thin side and are listed below:
- Driver CD
- Installation guide
- DVI-to-VGA adaptor
- 6-pin Molex power connector
- 7-pin mini-DIN to Component/S-Video dongle

Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GT Extreme

Leadtek has gone with the standard board design and cooler but as the Extreme name declares, this is an overclocked GeForce 9600 GT. The core has been increased to 720MHz, a very decent improvement, though memory remains the same at 1800MHz DDR. A rather decent game, Overlord is also included along in the package, together with the items listed below. Given its above average performance, Leadtek is unsurprisingly asking for a premium here, albeit a slight one, as this Extreme is priced at S$309.

- Driver CD
- Installation guide
- Overlord (full game)
- DVI-to-VGA adaptor
- DVI-to-HDMI adaptor
- 6-pin Molex power connector
- 7-pin mini-DIN to Component/S-Video dongle
- S/PDIF cable

Palit GeForce 9600GT

SonicWe have always looked forward to the non-standard NVIDIA boards that Palit have released over the years but the company has probably outdid itself with its GeForce 9600 GT Sonic. Firstly, the redesigned PCB comes with a three-phase power design instead of the two-phase version found on the reference that may lead to higher overclocks and better stability. The card itself is overclocked, though with a 700MHz core and 2000MHz DDR memory, it doesn't seem that extreme. The dual slot cooler is also not that unusual as we have seen similar designs from the vendor before.

While we have reviewed Palit's products often, they are not usually found for sale under that brand in this part of the world.

What took our breath away is the presence of a DisplayPort together with a HDMI output at the back. As some of you should know, DisplayPort is still a relatively new interface standard that's driven by VESA and competes against the HDMI interface favored by consumer electronics. However, big companies like ATI and Intel have pledged support for this new standard and notably, new monitors from Dell include this new connector. Whether it will take off ultimately is uncertain at this early stage but Palit has ensured that this Sonic will be a future proof card with its three different forms of output. Additionally, there's even an optical S/PDIF output.

Our first sight of DisplayPort is courtesy of this Palit GeForce 9600 GT, which has definitely locked down all video output options.

Redesigning the reference board has become something of a Palit/XpertVision trademark.

Finally, Palit has included a decent bundle, with a Tomb Raider game and the necessary cables like optical and S/PDIF audio cables. At US$210, it is more expensive than the standard GeForce 9600 GT but that is expected given its capabilities. As Palit is generally not available in the Asia-Pacific region, consumers should be looking out for the XpertVision brand for the equivalent product (which is also included in this article).

- Driver CD
- Installation guide
- Tomb Raider Anniversary (full game)
- DVI-to-VGA adaptor
- 6-pin Molex power connector
- Optical audio cable
- S/PDIF cable

Sparkle GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

The sole card in our roundup to come with passive cooling, Sparkle's GeForce 9600 GT is another rare specimen that might be a little hard to come by in certain regions. Like the Palit before, the Sparkle has a slightly redesigned PCB and a mixture of solid and non-solid capacitors. What most consumers should be interested in is its heat pipe based passive cooler, which is actually quite conventional. The radiator with its array of aluminum fins are placed on the other side of the card, with enough clearance to avoid bumping into any motherboard components. Given its passive cooler, we weren't expecting any overclocking but Sparkle did bump up the core clock to 660MHz, but this 10MHz increment probably has little effect. Finally, a SRP of US$249 is quite the premium to pay for a GeForce 9600 GT, as you can probably get a GeForce 8800 GT for that.

As Sparkle demonstrates here, passive cooling is very feasible with the G94.
The massive heatsink for the Sparkle GeForce 9600 GT is located on the flip side of the card.