GeForce 9600GT

[azzl]

I've been looking at upgrading from my lowly GF6600, and now that these are available I think I'm going to pull the trigger. Newegg is listing the following manufacturers, not all of whom are aping the reference design...does anyone have thoughts on reliability and fan noise on these brands?

EVGA
Palit Multimedia Inc
ASUS
BFG Technologies
GIGABYTE
Leadtek

Also, it looks like only one of the Palit cards (Apparently Palit owns Gainward? I never heard of them) has HDMI out. Not having used HDMI before, but having a port on my HDTV/monitor for it, I'm wondering if that's too important a feature to pass up. Isn't it necessary for a secure media path or something? What's the deal with audio passthrough-- I have to have some special lead on my mobo?

[jeffd]

Along these lines - anyone know when the 9800 series cards will be out?

[Daagar]

Based on "past performance" only, EVGA is usually pretty solid, ASUS is up there, and BFG tends to vary (sometimes they try too hard with the OC models). Leadtek is usually pretty reference - no frills, but lower pricepoint without being "cheap". I don't really know about Gigabyte, and I've not heard of Palit before (though I seem to recall Gainward being pretty good when they first came around).

For many brands, the difference seems to be in either the extras (ie., the HDMI port), the fan attached, and overclocking potential. If you don't plan to overclock (much), the fan isn't such a huge deal unless you have a cramped case or heat issues. The one thing EVGA has going for it is their step-up program.

I've read March for the 9800 series, but that was pure speculation at the time.

[Fugitive]

The HDMI port isn't really a huge deal unless you're connecting to a TV or home theatre setup. DVI supports HDCP so it can display protected content too, so HDMI is really only necessary if the device you're connecting the video to (i.e., the TV or a receiver) won't accept audio from any other source at the same time.

[Coca Cola Zero]

These days it almost seems like Nvidia is picking confusing model numbers just to fuck with us.

[rei]

think i can sell my old radeon 9800 pro as an upgrade to someone with this naming convention?

[Gordon_Bleu]

The 9600 is confusing. Isn't it *slower* than the 8800 cards? Why would anyone want it over the 8800? Price?

[stusser]

It's slightly slower than the 8800GT, but currently sells for $20 less. It was just released though, prices should drop another $20-30.

[fuzzyslug]

Here's a run of down on Tom's hardware. Like stusser mentioned, it appears to be priced just right given its performance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/21/nvidia_geforce_9600_gt/page20.html

[azzl]

The 9600 is confusing. Isn't it *slower* than the 8800 cards? Why would anyone want it over the 8800? Price?

It's barely slower than an 8800, but runs cooler on less power. That's important to me since I'm using an HTPC case and have had heat issues before (my current card is passively cooled and a much noisier replacement would be irritating too). Price isn't a huge consideration at the moment, but I'm a sucker for efficiency.

[Chris Nahr]

According to the Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nvidia-9600gt-review.ars) review the 9600 GT is around 20% slower than the 8800 GT but much faster than the 8600 GT.

[Charles]

I love that nvidia is now releasing their higher numbered budget cards before the high end cards of the new generation.

That won't cause any confusion. Not at all.

Fucking retards.

[Demon G Sides]

I'm Confused.

[stusser]

Like stusser mentioned, it appears to be priced just right given its performance.
That's not the conclusion I'd make; I'd say that the $20 premium for the 8800GT is worthwhile. When the 9600GT drops another twenty bucks it'll be a much more attractive choice.

Also I wouldn't trust tom's hardware.

[teledyne]

I read on HardOCP (http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ2NiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==) that the 9600GT beats out AMD/ATI's Radeon HD3870. They were also able to get a 15% overclock on the core, 14% on the memory. This was a BFGTech OC card, by the way.

[Lunch of Kong]

I love that nvidia is now releasing their higher numbered budget cards before the high end cards of the new generation.

That won't cause any confusion. Not at all.

Fucking retards.

To marketing people, it makes sense. To developers who like to have things organized and classified, it's !@#$ing retarded.

I take issue with the 9800gx2, which is two 8800 cards in a single unit. Call it the 8800superduo or something.

[Gordon_Bleu]

Personally I'm going to skip a generation and wait for the 10800gt.

[Ezdaar]

I would go with evga. I had a 7900GT that was doing odd things in Vista and after playing WoW. I purchased it back in 2006 and when I contacted evga support a week ago they told me to RMA it. I did so and today an 8800GTS 320 arrived as a replacement. They have a lifetime warranty and on newer cards will even cross ship RMAs.

evga 4 life yo.

[mono]

There's also a 9800 gtx in the pipeline, which I believe is a single GPU solution. I suspect it'll only be incrementally faster than an 8800GTX or Ultra, not truly a generational leap.

[Moggraider]

It's not the like this is the first time the X600 version is underpowered. The 8600 was weaker than a 7800, too.

[Shiroko]

The 600 will never give competition to the 800 series. You can count the stream processors in each card and see just how big the difference is. It will require a magic do double performance in one generation (That's pretty much the current 800/600 stream processor ratio).

I assume the 9600 is more important for nVidia because the 8600 really didn't supply the demands and the cheaper 3850/3870 (Than 8800GT) are ruining business.

[Kunikos]

I read on HardOCP (http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ2NiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==) that the 9600GT beats out AMD/ATI's Radeon HD3870. They were also able to get a 15% overclock on the core, 14% on the memory. This was a BFGTech OC card, by the way.

I seem to recall looking at a site which said the 3870 beats the 9600GT in many game benchmarks except maybe three (ET:QW, and two others I'm forgetting).


There's also a 9800 gtx in the pipeline, which I believe is a single GPU solution. I suspect it'll only be incrementally faster than an 8800GTX or Ultra, not truly a generational leap.

From what I understand the 9800 GTX is the real new generational leap. They've even gone so far to rename the GPU architecture code name from G100 to G200 to stress this more. The 9800 GX2 is a G92 based double GPU card, ala the Radeon HD 3870X2 or the older Nvidia GeForce 7950GX2. There will also be a 9800 GT, which will be more similar to the G200 architecture except perhaps fewer shader units, less RAM, etc similar to comparing the 8800GTX 768MB to the 8800GTS 640MB.

[azzl]

Thanks guys, I went ahead and ordered an EVGA so I can take advantage of their step-up program down the line if necessary...

[Kunikos]

Check it out-- the 9600GT SSC from EVGA is only slightly less fast than the 8800GT at 2560 res: http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/evga_geforce_9600_gt_ssc/index.shtml

(Look on page 8)