I'll be honest... I have not seen one these cards in action personally, so I will rely on the data provided by Nvidia. The charts below are all from January 06, 2008 and in the six weeks since these were taken things may have changed or improved. At the same time, you always have to take benchmarks provided by a manufacturer with a grain of salt.
The first screen shows the performance of a 7600 GT, 7900 GS, 8600 GTS, and a 9600 GT while running F.E.A.R. The test system was running Windows Vista with an Intel QX6850 Core 2 Extreme processor, a resolution of 1600x1200, and settings of 4x/16x.
The results look dramatic, with well over a 100% improvement over the second best card. But, it isn't like the 9600 GT was pitted against any of the big dawgs, but it was instead allowed to beat up on some of the smaller puppies in the Nvidia kennel.
The next set of results uses the same test setup to compare the 9600 GT to the 8600 GTS in a variety of DirectX 10 games. In a number of today's big games, and at a variety of settings, the 9600 GT looks incredible when compared to the middle of the road 8600 GTS.
And finally, some data was provided to show what you could expect in a head-to-head match up with an ATI product. Again, the top of the line ATI card was not featured, but the respectable HD 3850 was. While the 9600 GT was able to exceed the performance of the HD 3850 in a few games, the difference is marginal in a few others.
Based on the test data provided, the initial offering in Nvidia's 9x series of cards does not offer a revolutionary change. The 9600 GT seems to be land somewhere between the ATI HD 3850 and HD 3870, and is definitely not competition for the higher end offerings in the Nvidia 8800 series.
The bottom line is that the 9600 GT could be an attractive option to those looking for an upgrade that won't force them to skip any meals in order to pay for it! Priced roughly the same as an ATI HD 3850, and theoretically offering a slight performance boost, this new card from Nvidia definitely has its place in the market. If you're looking for the ultimate Nvidia card you will have to run with the 8800 series, and keep your eye out for the 9800 series.
If you want more information on the 9600 GT, a Google search reveals plenty of leaked info that will soon be replaced with official details.
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