Nvidia introduces GeForce 9600 GSO

Nvidia introduces GeForce 9600 GSO

Nvidia has quietly introduced another new member in the GeForce 9-series called the GeForce 9600 GSO.

We've been pretty hard on Nvidia in some respects because, while there hasn't been a lot wrong with the GeForce 9-series cards that have been launched so far, they haven't exactly been groundbreaking.

The GeForce 9600 GSO sadly doesn't change things, as this particular card's specifications look strangely similar to a card that the graphics giant launched at the start of the year. Yes, we're talking about the GeForce 8800 GS.

When the GeForce 8800 GS originally launched, it featured 96 stream processors, a 550MHz core speed, while the shaders and memory were clocked at 1,375MHz and 1,600MHz respectively. The card also sported a 192-bit memory interface and 384MB of onboard memory.

And guess what, the GeForce 9600 GSO sports exactly the same specifications and, from the looks of things, all that has changed is the cooler – the card now looks more like a GeForce 9600 GT.

We're probably not going to be covering the card's performance in a full review, because we've already compared it to the GeForce 9600 GT and its many competitors in the mainstream market when the GeForce 9600 GT launched. Nvidia doesn't delve into the details of what chip is used on the card, but considering everything else matches the GeForce 8800 GS's specification to the latter, it wouldn't be wrong to assume that it's based on G92.

Pricing is expected to be around the same mark as the current GeForce 8800 GS (I'd be annoyed if it increased, put it that way), so expect GeForce 9600 GSO cards to start at around £75-80 (inc. VAT).

Do you think this is a bit of a shrewd move by Nvidia rename the GeForce 8800 GS in order to sell those G92 dies that don't meet the grade for the GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS 512, GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 9800 GX2? Share your thoughts with us in the forums.





From: bit-tech.net

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