Last month we reported on rumors that NVIDIA was prepping a "new" GeForce 9600 GSO based on their smaller G94 GPU (instead of G92) in an effort to cut manufacturing costs. The new 9600 GSO is equipped with half the shaders as the original 9600 GSO, 48, but retains G94's 256-bit memory interface (current 9600 GSO cards utilize a narrower 192-bit memory interface).

Today Expreview got their hands on one of the first of these new 9600 GSO cards from Inno3D. Their card is clocked at 650MHz core/1625MHz shaders, an improvement of 100MHz and 250MHz respectively over the original 9600 GSO. Finally the memory clock on the Inno3D 9600 GSO+ board is 900MHz, an increase of 100MHz over the original 9600 GSO.

Thanks to its higher clocks and 256-bit memory interface the new 9600 GSO's may perform comparably, or even slightly better than the original 9600 GSO in some situations despite its lack of shading units. Unfortunately Expreview doesn't list benchmark results for the card. Officially the GPU hasn't launched yet, but with current supplies of 9600 GSO cards drying up at Newegg (currently just 5 new cards are listed) and the appearance of this new 9600 GSO+ board, it's likely only a matter of weeks before the new cards hit retail. Expreview mentions an MSRP of $87 for the Inno3D card.

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