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Inno3D iChiLL 9600 GSO - OC version tested

by on26 August 2008


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Review: Xstrike3 cooler and Ghost Recon 2 gift

 

Nvidia's Geforce 9 generation features a couple of low-cost cards, among which you’ll find 9600 GSO. This card is positioned above 9500 GT but it sells at a price similar, or a bit lower than 9600 GT. We’ve seen many new cards this month, but many of those were just rebranded old stuff. Sadly, Geforce 9600 GSO is not an exception to that rule, as this card is nothing but the old Geforce 8800 GS with a fancy new name.

Many of you probably never heard of 8800 GS, as only a couple of partners such as Asus and XFX incorporated it into their offer. We tested it and you can read the review here. Not long after it was announced, 8800 GS was rebranded into Geforce 9600 GSO.

Inno3D decided not to waste this opportunity so now you can find 9600 GSO cards in their low-cost offer. In order to draw some attention to this card, Inno3D used Xstriker3 cooler, which in turn enables for easy overclocking. Geforce 9600 GSO found its place in Inno3D’s iChiLL series famous for good thermal characteristics and quality of materials used.

Inno3D iChiLL series is aimed at enthusiasts with slightly deeper pockets, but who are willing to sacrifice some of their cash for top quality. The picture below shows Inno3D 9600 GS card with the Xstriker 3 cooler, something that will make sure you remember this card.

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The black cooler looks quite stylish with a white fan and gold TV out and DVI connectors. In this case good looks is coupled with efficiency, and the cooler is good enough to enable for easy overclocking of G92-150 core.

For those who want a bit more power straight out of the box, Inno3D did a good job overclocking this card from default 550MHz to 610MHz. However, we were a bit mystified as to why stream processors were left at default 1375MHz.

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In order to further enhance performance this card got a memory boost, too. Reference speed of 800MHz (1600MHz) is overclocked by 100MHz and now runs at 900MHz (1800MHz). Those who are thinking of buying this card will be happy to hear that the memory on this card is made by Samsung and it’s intended to run at 1000MHz which leaves some additional overclocking room.

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We removed one small black heatsink that keeps the memory modules cooled and found the mentioned Samsung memory. The heatsink in question is cooled by the air from Xstriker3 cooler that covers all the memory modules.

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Geforce 9600 GSO is a card with a strange 192bit memory interface, which results in unusual memory quantity – in this case it’s 768MB of GDDR3. Weaker models have half this number, meaning 384MB.

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The card comes with 6 memory modules, each packing 128MB, and they’re visible only when you remove the cooler. All the modules are located on the front and each has its own heatsink.

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G92-150 graphics core is built in 65nm and it puts 96 stream processors at your disposal. Although 9600 GSO should, due to a higher number of stream processors, be better than 9600 GT (64 stream processors), the card suffers from a weaker 192bit memory bus, compared to the 256-bit one on 9600 GT. ROP units are, of course, an important part of graphics pipeline and 9600 GSO features 12 ROPs, compared to 9600 GT that has 16 ROPs.

Inno3D managed to improve overall performance of this card by overclocking the core to 610MHz and the memory to 900MHz, but 9600GT will probably come out on top if you use filters while gaming.

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Xstriker3 cooler has two heatpipes leading from the copper base to aluminum fins. Unfortunately, the cooler is connected by two wires and manual RPM control is not possible. RPM is constant, regardless of core temperatures.

2D and 3D result in same noise levels, and although it’s not too loud, we’d rather have automatic or manual RPM. Inno3D says that Xstriker3 runs at 28.5db, which is about what we heard during our testing.
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Geforce 9600 GSO is a DirectX 10.0 card with shader model 4.0 and PCI Express 2.0. Power connector is 6-pin and the card will draw up to 84W.

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Lack of SPDIF connector is somewhat of a downside, because you can use HDMI but without sound. That means you’ll have to route the sound from your soundcard/amp to your TV device.

I/O panel features two gold dual-link DVI outs with HDCP, but to get HDMI you’ll have to use the DVI-to-HDMI adapter. The adapter is not provided in the box which is a shame, especially knowing that Inno3D went that extra mile and gold coated DVI outs. The gold coating should provide lossless quality of signal during signal transfer.

However, lack of SPDIF will not affect this card’s other capabilities – namely PhysX support and CUDA.

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Inno3D 9600 GSO comes in quite a large box for a low-cost graphics card but it looks quite nice. Inno3D used plastics to imitate bubble cushion on the box, and the Xstriker3 cooler is visible through it.

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We were surprised to see Ghost Recon 2 gift with this card, and we must say that it’s a great present that will definitely make this card even more appealing.




Testbed:

Motherboard:
EVGA 680i SLI (Provided by EVGA)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme edition (Provided by Intel)

Memory:
OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18  (Provided by OCZ)
        during testing CL5-5-5-15-CR2T 1066MHz at 2.2V

PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black (Provided by OCZ)

Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Provided by Seagate)

CPU-Cooler:
Freezer 7 Pro (Provided by Artic Cooling)

Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM

Vista 32 SP1



Futuremarks

Geforce 9600 GSO scored somewhere between 9500 GT and 9600 GT cards. If you own an 8800 GS you can now compare how your card compares to 9600 GT. We already mentioned that 9600 GSO is nothing but a renamed 8800 GS with enough muscle to enable playing any title you choose, but at lower resolutions and lower detail settings. If lack of antialiasing doesn’t concern you, or you’re not particularly fond of bombastic high-res effects, then 9600 GSO is sure to be your faithful companion.

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Inno3D Geforce 9600 GSO is an overclocked card running at 610MHz and its speeds are enough to tackle the tasks ahead. It almost runs on par with 9600 GT, a card that runs at 650MHz.

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We overclocked Inno3D to 680MHz and the memory at 1000MHz (2000MHz effectively) and it outperformed the reference Geforce 9600 GT card.


Gaming

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Just like we expected, the card performs quite well compared to 9600 GT, but 9600 GSO loses when filters are turned on. Still, the results are such that all three tested games were playable but with lower graphics settings.

 

Conclusion

Inno3D sent us their Geforce 9600 GSO graphics card and this card comes with an excellent Xstriker3 cooler which is sure to provide some nice overclocking potential. The cooler doesn’t get louder than 28.5dB, which is acceptable, and it looks really good. This card packs 768MB of GDDR3 memory and it comes with a 192bit memory interface. Under the cooler you’ll find a 65nm G92 core with 96 Unified Shaders and 12 ROPs. For those who don’t want to trouble themselves with overclocking, Inno3D already did it for them - the card runs at 610MHz, which is a 60MHz overclock.

To make things more interesting, Inno3D included a gift game – Ghost Recon 2. With an overclocked core, memory at 900MHz (1800MHz effectively) and some lower resolutions, this card will let you play all the popular games.

This is a DX 10.0 card with PhysX and CUDA support, something all Nvidia’s 8th and 9th Geforce generation cards feature.

Although Inno3D went the extra mile and gold-coated TV and DVI outs , we still think that lack of SPDIF connector on the card is a mistake. This way HDMI is usable, but you’ll have to route the sound separately.

Inno3D Geforce 9600 GSO Xstriker3 (C9600GSO3-K5LTCD) is a good card if you want to play games and you don’t want to splash out more than €75-80, which is the price of this card. The downside is that a couple of extra euros can buy you a 9600 GT, but don’t forget that you get Ghost Recon 2 as a gift. All in all, we sincerely recommend it, especially if you were planning on buying a 9500 GT, since this card will provide much better gaming experience.



 

Last modified on 27 August 2008
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