GeForce 9600 GT Board Analysis

The GeForce 9600 GT borrows a lot of the design elements first implemented last year in the GeForce 8800 GT. In fact, the 9600 GT reference board is a dead ringer for the 8800 GT. The card boasts the same single-slot heatsink/fan unit found in the 8800 GT also.

When it was first launched the GeForce 8800 GT was criticized by some users for its high operating temperatures. While the card was designed to operate at high temps, users were upset that the card generated so much heat inside their system. NVIDIA and their board partners rectified the situation by integrating a slightly larger fan onto their boards. The larger fan ran at the same RPMs as the previous fan, but thanks to its larger design it was able to draw more air over the GPU, helping to keep temps in check. Last year we tested two GeForce 8800 GT boards, one with the original cooler, and a second card with the larger fan. In our testing we noted a difference of 25 degrees Celsius at load with the larger fan!

So what kind of temps should you expect out of the GeForce 9600 GT? In our open testing environment we saw temps of 42 degrees Celsius at idle, and 58 degrees at load. We’ll take another look at temperatures once we get more 9600 GT boards in for a roundup.

The reference GeForce 9600 GT is equipped with two dual-link DVI outputs with full support for HDCP, allowing you to watch Blu-ray and HD DVD movies on monitors up to 2560x1600 at full resolution. One change we were hoping to see but unfortunately isn’t present on the GeForce 9600 GT is a second SLI connector for 3-Way SLI. Leading up to the 9600 GT launch NVIDIA boasted that two 9600 GT cards were capable of outrunning a single GeForce 8800 GTX, so we’d be curious to see how three boards would fare. In addition, the 9600 GT’s closest natural competitor, the Radeon HD 3850, supports 4-Way operation, so the 9600 GT is technically at a disadvantage to the 3850 in this regard.

Up for eval today are four shipping GeForce 9600 GT cards.

ASUS EN9600 GT

The ASUS EN9600 GT is the latest card we’ve received. ASUS’ card is a mirror replica of NVIDIA’s reference board design, using all the same components as NVIDIA. ASUS also clocks their board at the same speeds as NVIDIA’s reference specifications. Disappointed by this? Don’t be, considering ASUS’ rich tradition of factory OC’ed TOP cards, we have no doubt such a board is likely in the works.


The EN9600 GT does support ASUS’ GamerOSD software, which can be used to provide real-time frames per second monitoring, video capture, and screenshot capture. GamerOSD can even be used to automatically overclock the GPU while you’re gaming. The card also ships with ASUS’ Smart Doctor software, which allows you to overclock the cards’ graphics core, memory, and stream processors. Smart Doctor can even be used to monitor the card’s fan speed, temperature, and voltages, as well as automatically adjust the card’s clock speeds. It’s a pretty neat utility that we’ve enjoyed over the years.

Besides bundling the card with two DVI adapters, ASUS includes one DVI adapter and one HDMI adapter. The card also ships with a power adapter and a component video cable.

The ASUS EN9600 GT sells for an MSRP of $189.

BFG GeForce 9600 GT OC

Like the ASUS card, BFG’s GeForce 9600 GT OC is based on NVIDIA’s reference board design and cooling, although obviously as an “OC” card the BFG board is overclocked from the factory. BFG clocks their board at 675MHz memory/1687MHz shaders, and 900MHz on the memory.

BFG’s GeForce 9600 GT OC will carry an MSRP of $229.99 and is backed by their famous lifetime warranty. We’re crossing our fingers for an even higher clocked 9600 GT OC2 model, but nothing has been announced on that front just yet.

EVGA e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC Edition

EVGA’s e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC is the fastest GeForce 9600 GT board we’ve received so far, running at speeds of 740MHz/1850 on the graphics core and stream processors and 975MHz on the memory. The card uses NVIDIA's reference board design and stock cooling. Whereas previous EVGA cards we've tested have come with game bundles (including games such as Crysis), EVGA skips bundling a game with the e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC to keep costs down. Instead this card is all about performance, and with its 740MHz core, it certainly delivers in this regard.

Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic

Palit has incorporated a number of changes into their 9600 GT Sonic. Whereas the other cards tested in this article are based on NVIDIA’s reference board design, the Palit board features its own custom board design with 3-phase power (versus 2-phase in the other cards), a dual-slot cooler, factory overclocking, and display connectivity that’s unrivaled on any GeForce board we’ve seen – on the back plane of the Palit Sonic card you’ll find two DVI outputs and HDMI and DisplayPort connections!

So how high does Palit clock the 9600 GT Sonic? How does 700MHz core/1750MHz shaders/1.0GHz memory sound? Palit also bundles the card with their VDOTool software, which allows you to overclock the graphics core, stream processors, and memory. VDOTool can also dynamically adjust clock speeds as well as providing hardware monitoring functionality.


Palit says their 9600 GT Sonic will sell for $219.

AMD’s response

Obviously with the debut of a new mainstream GeForce GPU, AMD is under pressure to respond in some way. The solution they’ve come up with isn’t price cuts, rather we should be seeing factory OC’ed Radeon HD 3850 cards from their board partners that offer better cooling and 512MB of memory.

An example of this is the HIS Radeon HD 3850 TurboX. The card features HIS’ 3rd generation dual-slot IceQ heatsink/fan unit and is clocked at 736MHz core/982MHz memory. Right now the card can be found on Newegg for as low as $173.99, making it slightly cheaper than the launch price of the original Radeon HD 3850 256MB! We’ve included this card, as well as a Radeon HD 3870 in this article so we can see how the Radeon cards stack up to the 9600 GT boards.