Conclusion

With GPU prices sinking by the day, NVIDIA badly needs a mainstream GPU like G96 to improve their bottom line. Just think, a year ago GeForce 8600 GT cards sold for about $150. Today that same GeForce 8600 GT card sells for half that, if not cheaper.

Thanks to its smaller manufacturing process, GeForce 9500 GT is considerably cheaper for NVIDIA to produce, while at the same time the GPU performs closest to the GeForce 8600 GTS. The GeForce 8600 GTS’ G84 GPU itself is not only costlier, its board design is as well, requiring more elaborate cooling and additional board-level components for power delivery. In comparison the GeForce 9500 GT is much simpler, unlike the 8600 GTS the board doesn’t require an external power connector, and don’t forget the enhancements NVIDIA has added to their G9x GPUs to improve clock-for-clock performance, as well as the addition of newer features like DisplayPort and PCIe 2.0.

Fundamentally G96 is an evolutionary progression of G84, just as G92 was for G80. NVIDIA isn’t drastically breaking any new ground when it comes to the architecture or its performance, on average the GeForce 9500 GT OC ran around 6-9% faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS, with the notable exceptions being Company of Heroes DX10 and Crysis DX10. In these games the difference was much greater, with the 9500 GT OC running 12-20% faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS. Meanwhile the bone stock GeForce 9500 GT generally ran about 5-8% slower than the GeForce 8600 GTS, although the stock 9500 GT managed to outrun the 8600 GTS in both Company of Heroes and Crysis.

Based on all this, we consider the GeForce 9500 GT OC to be the spiritual successor of the 8600 GTS, while the stock 9500 GT is replacing the 8600 GT. According to NVIDIA, the GeForce 8500 GT and GeForce 8400 GS will continue to be produced while the 8600s will slowly fade away.

And what about the competition? As of today the GeForce 9500 GT is officially going head-to-head with ATI’s Radeon HD 3650, but we all know that ATI is currently putting the finishing touches on their upcoming next-generation RV730 GPU. This GPU will have its sights set directly at the GeForce 9500 GT, as RV730 will presumably go into Radeon 4650 cards when it launches later this summer. If ATI is able to deliver a coup similar to the one they achieved with RV770, RV730 could put NVIDIA’s 9500 GT back on its heels.

Of course, at the same time based on our OC’ing results with G96, it’s entirely possible that NVIDIA is holding back right now, as it certainly appears they may have tons of frequency headroom that’s sitting untapped right now in G96. If RV730 is indeed a strong competitor, they could then respond with a 650MHz or perhaps even a 700MHz GeForce 9500 GT+. Only NVIDIA knows for sure.

What we do know is that NVIDIA is busily transitioning their entire GeForce lineup to 55-nm. With the 9500 GT launch now behind them, NVIDIA is now focusing on 55-nm variants of the GeForce 9800 GT, followed by the GeForce 9600 GT, and ultimately the GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280. If all goes well for NVIDIA, their entire lineup should be at 55-nm by the end of September, if not slightly sooner.

With so many GPUs in the works from both ATI and NVIDIA, we’re going to be awfully busy the next few months…