Testbed:
Motherboard:
EVGA 680i SLI (Supplied by EVGA)
Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme edition (Supplied by Intel)
Memory:
OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18 (Supplied by OCZ)
while testing CL5-5-5-15-CR2T 1066MHz at 2.2V
PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black ( Supplied by OCZ)
Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Supplied by Seagate)
CPU-Cooler:
Freezer 7 Pro (Supplied by Artic Cooling)
Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM
ATI Driver:
Sample-R680_xp_vista_8-451-2-080123a
8-1_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_57717
Nvidia Driver:
169.21_forceware_winxp_32bit_english_whql
169.28_forceware_winxp_32bit_english_beta
171.16_forceware_winxp_32bit_english_ za 9600GT
Futuremarks:
Initial testing has proven that 9600GT is better than the Geforce 8800 GS that’s now officially outclassed. In 3DMark06 the 9600GT beat 8800 GS 384MB by 15%. Compared to the reference card, Zotac's 9600 GT AMP! was better by 7% and the biggest performance advantage was 8% in 3DMark 03. This proves the G94 chip scales well when overclocked.
In 3DMark06, reference 9600GT beat the old 8600 GT by impressive 68%.
Gaming:
The overclocked Zotac 9600GT AMP handles higher speeds well and it beats the reference 9600 GT card by 10% in Crysis. Geforce 8600GT with 256MB of 128bit memory can’t do Crysis on high settings, but medium settings could do the trick. At medium settings and lower resolutions it results in great gameplay. 8800GT outperformed Zotac's 9600GT AMP by up to 17% and reference 9600 GT up to 29%.
Company of Heroes proved that F.E.A.R. is an exception that simply likes the new 9600 GT. In this game 8800 GS can compare to stock 9600GT, but Zotac’s OC card was better by up to 11%. As we increased the resolution, 8800GT showed its real strength – in the beginning it was better by 15%, but the highest resolution resulted in a performance advantage of almost 30% over Zotac’s card and almost 40% over the reference 9600GT.
Seeing the overclocked G94 on Zotac’s card performing in F.E.A.R. was a joy to behold. It ran on par with 8800 GT and beat the reference card by up to 12%. Radeon HD 3870 and HD 3850 were slower.
In all resolutions below 1920 more than twice as fast compared to any 8600 GT. The overclocked Zotac AMP! Edition is quite close to the 8800 GT.
With AA and AF turned off, Radeon cards perform much better and we see that ATI's HD 3870 manages to beat the 9600GT. In other scenarios 9600GT outperformed or performed on par with HD 3870. In World in Conflict, overclocked Zotac 9600 GT AMP performed almost as well as 8800 GT and about 15% faster than the reference card.
Conclusion
For a mid-range product, the new 9600GT is great and the results confirm that. Priced at around €170, Zotac 9600 GT is an attractive card, but we’re still hoping that the prices will drop further. A simple glance at a price-per-frame ratio confirms that 9600 GT and 8800 GT provide a lot of bang for your buck, so AMD will have to resort to price wars in order to fight new Nvidia products.
You can play all the newer games with this card and get a decent framerate. The card is excellent and sometimes outperforms 8600GT by 100%, but the price is much too close to 8800GT cards.
Zotac’s card runs 75MHz faster than reference and is not too noisy. If you want to buy 9600GT, this one looks like a great deal, and definitely a better choice than a reference 9600GT.