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If you don't want to bother overclocking yourself, aim for a
pre-overclocked videocard like the Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC PCSTATS
is testing in this review. This baby is a single slot reference videocard which
has been pre-overclocked at the factory.
80% Rating: 
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nVIDIA GeForce 9600GT Core and Overclocking
 The nVIDIA
GeForce 9600GT (code named 'G94') is a mainstream graphics chip manufactured by
TSMC on the 65nm process. Each chip contains 505 million transistors on a rather
small die patch - just 240mm2. The core is marked "G94-300-A1".
The default clock speeds are 650MHz GPU, 1800MHz
memory and 1625MHz shader. The Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC is pre-overclocked from
the factory. Its clock speeds are 700MHz GPU, 2000MHz memory, and 1750MHz
shader.
Since the
nVidia G94 GPU is based on familiar technologies, we'll just mention that it's
DirectX10, Shader Model 4.0 and HDCP compliant. Additionally, the core
accomodates OpenGL 2.1, 128-bit HDR, nVidia Quantum Effects physics processing,
and Microsoft Windows Vista. It also supports Purevideo HD 2/VP2 to accelerate
High Definition content and reduce CPU load.
The
Geforce 9600GT videocard consumes about 95W power, and has a 6-pin auxiliary
power connector. This is a sight we're not accustomed to with mainstream-class
videocards. The
Geforce 9600GT videocard is compatible with the PCI Express 2.0 bus interface,
and fits in a standard PCI Express x16 videocard slot. Nvidia SLI is supported
via a single SLI card edge connector, a maximum of two Geforce 9600GTs can be
teamed up.
 Nvidia have given the Geforce 9600GT 64 unified shaders,
whereas the Geforce 8800GTX has 128, and the 8800GTS 640/320MB 96. Clock for
clock this means the Geforce 9600GT is close to, but not as fast as the GeForce
8800GTS. More stream processors allow the videocard to do more work per clock
cycle, so clock for clock the 8800GTX only needs to run at half the speed of the
Geforce 9600GT to do the same amount of work.
Several companies have released Geforce 9600GT videocards which are
pre-overclocked, such as the Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC PCSTATS is testing today, but
you can just as easily overclock it yourself as the GPU is pretty forgiving.
The reference GeForce 9600GT has 512MB of GDDR3
memory, and to ensure that the G94 stays in its place the card has just a
256-bit wide data bus. The GeForce 8800GTX uses a 384 bit bus and the 8800GTS
320/640MB a 320 bit data bus. Now let's find out how much further we can
overclock the Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC videocard!
Overclocking the quick Asus
Videocard
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| Overclocking Results: |
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The
Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC videocard has slightly elevated clock speeds from
stock already, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't still be possible
to squeeze it even further. For the record,
Foxconn's Geforce 9600GT core is clocked at 700 MHz, the
cards' memory at 2000 MHz.
Starting with the 9600GT GPU first, PCSTATS
will be overclocking with the help of nVidia's nTune software. The 'G94' core should be
able to overclock to about 775MHz, so let's see how close we get to
that goal.
Starting from 700MHz, the Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC was
rapidly overclocked to 738MHz, 756MHz, 765MHz, and 774MHz before the benchmark
tests began to fail. The GPU speed was dropped back to 765MHz,
however artifacts were visible in the 3D tests. Stability ultimately came at 755MHz
GPU. It's not quite the 775MHz we were hoping for, but it's close.
 We next
turned our attention to overclocking the 512MB of GDDR3 memory. Starting at 2000 MHz,
the memory is already pretty heavily overclocked. If the trends hold true,
we should be able to reach close to 2200MHz (1100MHz) without too much trouble.
Well the GDDR3 played nicely with our overclocking
plans, and we jumped from 1000MHz right to 1100MHz, then 1135MHz, and 1149MHz.
At 1171MHz artifacts were showing up, so the memory speed was dropped back
down to a more stable 1164MHz (2328MHz DDR2). This is the best memory overclock we've
had thus far on a Geforce 9600GT!
nVidia's
Geforce 9600GT is pretty overclocking friendly, and the Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC videocard
certainly showed us this today.
Prelude to Benchmarks:
The
details of how the Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC test system was configured for
benchmarking; the specific hardware, software drivers, operating system and
benchmark versions are indicated below. All benchmarks for the Foxconn
9600GT-512NOC are run in Windows Vista Ultimate, the reference videocards were
tested in both Windows XP and Vista for the DX10 benchmarks.
PCSTATS
is in the process of making the transition to a Windows Vista only test
platform, so keep this in mind as you scan the benchmark results. In the second
column are the general specs for the reference platforms this nVIDIA GeForce
9600GT videocard is to be compared against. Please take a moment to look over
PCSTATS test system configurations before moving on to the individual benchmark
results on the next page.
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| PCSTATS Test System Configurations |
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Benchmarked results are grouped by GPU manufacturer
first (AMD/ATI or nVidia), then by GPU generation, and then by GPU class (high
end, mainstream, value). This approach provides a clearer view of how
performance can differ from generation to generation, and class to previous
generation. The product being tested is marked with the red colour bar.
On with the benchmarks!
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