Nvidia's GeForce 9600 GT Tested

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Test Drive Unlimited

Test Drive Unlimited produced fairly different results depending on whether or not antialiasing was enabled, but given the performance levels we logged, the classification on the graphs was made with the filter enabled. That wasn't an advantage for the Radeon HD 3870. While that card systematically ran ahead of the 9600 GT without filters (up to 8% at 1280x1024), the opposite was true once antialiasing was enabled. This was due to the failure to debug the ROPs when the move was made from the R600 to the RV670 - antialiasing always has to be handled by the shaders on the Radeon HD 2000 and 3000. The 9600 GT's lead was as much as 7%.

The Radeon HD 3850 512 MB couldn't keep up, with or without antialiasing, and the 9600 GT's lead varied between 9 and 23%.

Florian Charpentier
6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tijmen007
    Nice Review, was really helpfull chosing between the HD4670 and 9600GT. Cause the HD4670 is a bit slower as the HD3850 due its memory bus of 128-bit.

    Tijmen
    Reply
  • Unicorns_FTW
    Wow, it is amazing how much AA & AF deplete your FPS on games such as Crysis and COD 4. I have a Palit 9600GT along with a E8400, and it more or less matches these benchies. Great review once again.
    Reply
  • silicondoc
    Thanks for the review - helps in putting together medium range systems. Card prices have gone up now ( Feb 2009 ) after they went down during and about "black Friday" time.
    I see the lowest priced 9600GT at $90, %65 after rebate, with free Far Cry 2.
    Not bad at all.
    Reply
  • ceponatia
    9600GT is a POS. It has wonderful performance, as the review stated, until it crashes to a black screen. I have had two different cards and they both do the same thing. Buy a Radeon.
    Reply
  • Great, looks like I need to spend more money on a better graphics card. Thanks for testing.
    Reply
  • i think gefore 8800 GT is Good!
    Reply