Video Card Review

VVIKOO GeForce 9600 GT Turbo

Introduction

The NVIDIA 9600GT is the first model of the Geforce 9xxx family, based on the G94 GPU. Unusually, NVIDIA released the middle-range version before the high end models of that new Geforce family (namely the 9800GTX/GX2). This early introduction of the 9600GT is aimed to fill a hole in the middle-range offer in NVIDIA graphic solutions, between the 8600GT (not expensive, but too weak for 3D gaming) and the 8800GT (powerful, but slightly too expensive for a middle-range video card). Today we will review a model proposed by Vvikoo. We already reviewed two Vvikoo video cards last year, and were seduced by this newly created brand. Vvikoo proposes two models based on the 9600GT GPU : the classic model, and the Turbo model that we are testing today.

Packaging

Vvikoo changed the packaging of its products. The previous "bee" design was original however. But Vvikoo preferred the classic "heroic-fantasy" design, used by almost all video cards manufacturers. Nethertheless, the box clearly mentions the key features of that video card : GPU name, memory size and type, all can be checked in one glance.

The box contains the following :

• The graphic card.
• One DVI-I to DSub adapter.
• One S/PDIF-IN internal cable.
• One S/PDIF-IN external cable.
• One molex to six-pins PCI-E power cable.
• A driver CD.
• An installation guide.
• A complete version of Tomb Raider Anniversary game.

Video card presentation

Specifications summary

GPU Architecture NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT (G94) 65 nm manufacturing process 64 unified stream processors Full Microsoft DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0 support Memory 512 MB GDDR3 256-bits bus width (64 GB/s) Clocks GPU : 700 MHz Memory : 1000 MHz Shaders : 1750 MHz Interface PCI Express 2.0 x16 Connectors 2 x Dual-Link DVI-I Display Port (DP) HDMI Cooling Zalman VF-1000 copper cooler + fan

System requirements

The Vvikoo 9600GT Turbo is compliant with PCI-Express 2.0, however the card can be used with PCI-Express 1.0 mainboards as well. The power consumption of the G94 is not very high, but Vikkoo recommends at least a 400W PSU, with a minimum of 26A for 12VA, as clearly exposed on the side of the box.

Photos gallery

The card uses a very efficient all-copper Zalman VF-1000 cooling solution (click to enlarge).

The big fan is virtually noiseless. (click to enlarge)

Four heatpipes drive the heat from the GPU to the heat spreader (click to enlarge).

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2 x DVI-I outputs. (click to enlarge)

HDMI and DP outputs. (click to enlarge)

Like all recent video cards, the Vvikkoo 9600GT includes one Display Port (DP) in addition to the HDMI ouput. Designed to take place of the classic VGA ports, the Digital Port is able to carry audio signal a well as video signal. On the contrary of the HDMI standard, the use of Digital Port does not require licence fees, and therefore is expected to be massively used by manufacturers.

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The card requires a 6-pin PCI-Express power plug. (click to enlarge)

A molex to 6-pin PCI-E cable is included in the package.

The S/PDIF-IN internal cable.

Features

With 64 shader units, the new NVIDIA G94 GPU is basically a half-cut of the original G92 that drives the 8800GTS. In comparison to the 8800GT, that kept 112 of the 128 units, the 9600GT compensates the 48 missing units with higher clock speeds. The Vvikoo 9600GT Turbo uses even higher clocks : 700 MHz instead of 650 MHz for the GPU (+7.8%) and 1000 MHz instead of 900 MHz for the 512 MBytes of GDDR3 (+11.1%).

Performance

We installed the 9600GT Turbo on a Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 with an AMD Phenom 9600 (non overclocked) and 2 GBytes of DDR2 memory.

3DMark 2006

9600GT Turbo (GPU @700, Memory @1000, Shader @1750)

9600GT default clocks speed (GPU @650, Memory @900, Shader @1625)

3DMark 2006 scores 10209 on the 9600GT Turbo, very close from what a Geforce 8800GT can provide (between 10000 and 12000 with the same processor). As a comparison, the card scores 9940 at stock speeds, that means that the overclock results in a global performance increase of +3% on that particular benchmark.

The GPU temperature did not exceed 37°C during the test. A very impressive result due to the efficiency of the ZF-1000 cooler.

We used the Gigabyte ODIN PSU to monitor the system's power consumption. It peaked at 250W during 3DMark 2006.

Crysis

For this test, we used the Crysis Benchmark Tool developped by the Crymod community.

The bench settings are as following :

DirectX9, AA=4x, Vsync=Disabled, 32 bit test, FullScreen
Global Game Quality: Custom
Custom Quality Values:
VolumetricEffects=Medium
Texture=Medium
ObjectDetail=Medium
Sound=Medium
Shadows=Medium
Water=Medium
Physics=Medium
Particles=Medium
Shading=High
PostProcessing=Medium
GameEffects=Medium

The 9600GT allows to play Crysis with a lot of comfort, providing more than 35 FPS in 1280x1024 with medium graphic settings, that is less than 5 FPS lower than a 8800GT.

Conclusion

The Geforce 9600GT is definitely a very good deal, and offers the best ratio performance / price at the moment. The boosted version proposed by Vvikoo makes even better, and provides almost the same performance as a 8800GT at a lower price. The 9600GT Turbo is priced around 180€ (the ZF-1000 alone is priced around 45€), whereas the cheapest 8800GT is around 210€.

Vvikoo NVIDIA 9600GT Turbo

Useful links

• Vvikoo Home page.
• 9600GT Turbo product page.
• NVIDIA 9600GT page.

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