Conclusion

Last year’s introduction of the GeForce 8600 GTS was supposed to bring DX10 graphics to the masses, but as we all know by now, the 8600 GTS’ performance in DX10 apps was rather underwhelming – unless you were willing to game at 1024x768, the 8600 GTS just didn’t have the memory interface or the shading horsepower to run DX10 games at adequate frame rates. We didn’t truly get a sub-$200 DX10 card that could deliver playable frame rates until the introduction of the Radeon HD 3850.

Today’s introduction of the GeForce 9600 GT raises the bar even further.

In comparison to its direct predecessor, the GeForce 8600 GTS, the 9600 GT delivers a performance improvement of 2X in DX9 apps, and often runs 2.5 times faster in DX10 games. This is a phenomenal jump in performance, and as you saw in our benchmarks, the GeForce 9600 GT is even faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB, which was a $300 graphics card last year. In comparison, GeForce 9600 GT cards are expected to sell anywhere from $169-$229.

When paired up against the competition from AMD, the GeForce 9600 GT continues to perform well. In stock form the GeForce 9600 GT ran up to 28% faster than the overclocked Radeon HD 3850 512MB board from HIS in DX9 apps such as F.E.A.R., Episode Two, and Company of Heroes. Generally as the screen resolution increased in these games, the 3850 closed the gap to as little as 4%. The 3850 delivered superior frame rates in Lost Planet DX9 and in Oblivion, the 9600 GT trailed the HIS card by as much as 6% in Oblivion and about 12% in Lost Planet. The GeForce 9600 GT ran anywhere from 9-12% faster than the Radeon 3850 in Call of Duty 4 as well.

The stock GeForce 9600 GT swept the overclocked Radeon HD 3850 in all of our DirectX 10 benchmarks.

Factory OC’ed boards pulled away even further from the Radeon HD 3870, suggesting that AMD will need to counter these boards with factory OC’ed 3870 cards. A quick glance at Newegg shows that HIS’ own overclocked 3870 board currently sells for $275. Depending on how fast that card is, that price probably needs to come down another $40-$50 to be competitive with the factory OC’ed 9600 GT boards.

Quite honestly, with just 64 stream processors we weren’t expecting much from NVIDIA’s GeForce 9600 GT. We knew it would be a strong competitor to the Radeon HD 3850, but we had no clue it would deliver performance that rivals the GeForce 8800 GT in some cases!

So how did NVIDIA manage to pull it off? Obviously the 9600 GT doesn’t have the pure shading horsepower of the 8800 GT, sporting just 64 stream processors compared to the 8800 GT’s 112, but other than the shading unit deficit the two GPUs are quite similar architecturally. Texture filtering and addressing capabilities are the same, as are the number of ROPs. In addition, they both offer the same peak memory bandwidth and the same z and color compression enhancements. This is important as we’re testing these games with the eye candy cranked up and with AA. In these types of situations, the GPU is often bound by its memory subsystem. Also keep in mind that the 9600 GT sports higher graphics core and stream processor clocks than the 8800 GT.

When you combine this with the OC’ed clocks found on the cards we tested, these 9600 GT cards actually offer more ROP fill and memory bandwidth than a bone stock GeForce 8800 GT board.

With the introduction of the GeForce 9600 GT, NVIDIA’s finally provided a compelling sub-$200 DirectX 10 graphics part. If you’re a gamer on a budget who craves the best performance in DX9 and DX10 games, the GeForce 9600 GT is the best card on the market right now.