new Nvidia 9600GT slaughters the competition

[Tomeis]

So does the 9 series of nvidia cards have dedicated physics processors built into the card or what?

Not that I'm aware of.

[Vidiot]

Exactly. your EXTREMELY OVERCLOCKED 3870. It doesn't even "completely pound" it. Maybe just 10 or so FPS more at higher resolutions.

For the most part, the two cards are very equal. In some games and resolutions, the 9600 is superior, and in other games at other resolutions, the 3870 is superior.

Like you said, the 3870 is $170. Well, you can get a 9600GT for $150, and even around $130 (I bought mine for $129). The obvious choice would be the 9600GT as it's cheaper, and the two cards don't differ that much. If you're willing to spend $170 on a 3870.. well... you'd be better off just spending a tiny bit more and getting an 8800GT for $184
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...y%20Technology

Also, I'm not too familiar with ATI, but I hear their driver support isn't the greatest

ATI has great driver support, otherwise I wouldn't be mentioning that I get really great FPS with the 8.3 drivers . Even my extremely overclocked 3870 only increases about 2fps in games like Crysis, so a stock 3870 with the 8.3 drivers still beats the 9600gt pretty bad. And when you are talking 10fps more out of only like 40fps, that's a 25% increase!

[Benfica]

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...y%20Technology

[shot]http://img.ncix.com/images/26783_l.jpg[/shot]
Hmm, the fat cooler on this 8800gt...

The card on the review is overclocked, against a stock speed hd3870. So who bought the 3870 already shouldn't worry, even more with a dual-slot cooling that allows nice oc So, it ends up being a matter of personal preference I guess
...
I see a lot of BS on cards and gaming, so I had to rant
...
And how come 90ºC is acceptable for a 65nm circuit and people are scared with 60ºC on a CPU?

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...ermal-analysis

IT SOUNDS LIKE Nvidia's G92, the next-gen high-end part, is having heat problems. Several people told us that a few weeks ago, they got an urgent letter from NV to send them computers that the new G92 would go in for 'thermal analysis'. Hmmm, makes you wonder, doesn't it?

More interestingly, the OEMs: several told the same story, said they were given about a week to comply, slap it in a box and FexEx that sucker, ASAP. Other than 'thermal analysis' and 'do it now', no explanation was given. That really made uswonder.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...ermal-analysis

A FEW MONTHS ago, Nvidia mass mailed OEMs asking for their chassis to be sent in for 'thermal analysis'. What that meant, or why it did it remained a mystery until a little bird gave me the last remaining piece of the puzzle.

Let's backpedal a bit. If you have been following the G92 vs RV670 soap opera, you will know that the initial leaked numbers showed that ATI was going to pip Nvidia by a few points in the benchmark 3DMark06 benchmark. While I should say benchmark again, I won't, I will just say that early odds had ATI leading by about 10 per cent.

When the cards came out, Nvidia was in the lead by about 10 per cent, more or less, depending on applications, but by about as much as it was tipped to lose by in the early days. How did it get the 20 per cent? Remember our friend the 'thermal analysis'?

It seems that Nvidia took a much lower clocked G92 and cranked it to the edge of living with its single slot cooling "solution". It had to validate it against every chassis it could to crank it to the point of errors, then dial it back by the barest minimum.

So, it looks to have worked on the outside. A quick poll of OEMs shows that in their testing, there is little to no thermal margin for the 8800GT in a one slot configuration. Remember boys and girls, this vents heat inside the chassis, not directly outside like a two slot card.

IMO 8800gt owners have 3 options in the summer:
- Degrade the card
- Install a better cooler, which defeats the point of not going for a 8800gts-512 instead
- Underclock it by 10% or so. Congrats, you have now the performance of an ATI HD3870

[Tomeis]

ATI has great driver support, otherwise I wouldn't be mentioning that I get really great FPS with the 8.3 drivers . Even my extremely overclocked 3870 only increases about 2fps in games like Crysis, so a stock 3870 with the 8.3 drivers still beats the 9600gt pretty bad. And when you are talking 10fps more out of only like 40fps, that's a 25% increase!

Well, that's OK then. Especially since I only paid $129 for my 9600GT, unlike you who paid $200+ for the 3870. An extra 10 FPS in crysis certainly isn't worth an extra $70 or more.

And 10FPS doesn't even quality as "beating it pretty bad"

[ProjectUT]

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/129...sts/index.html
Temps and sound are too high. Looks like nVidia stuffed up with G94, they're all hotter than the G92's which run faster. Will have to wait for custom cooling and then see.

IMO 8800gt owners have 3 options in the summer:
- Degrade the card
- Install a better cooler, which defeats the point of not going for a 8800gts-512 instead
- Underclock it by 10% or so. Congrats, you have now the performance of an ATI HD3870

That's only if you bought version 1.0 boards with the single slot cooler. My Dual slot V2.0 board runs around 56c on load, I have no problem in summer.
Anyone who has a single slot just need to replace the cooler, and they'll find it much better, no need to degrade, lower clock or get a GTS, geez man.
Plus, if you get the DUAL power connector version, simply swap a jumper pin, and you'll have real good overclocking with the right cooler.

[gargorias]

- What's the point of buying high end cards with inflated prices, riding the max out bandwagon, spreading FUD that PC gaming is too expensive, leading others to buy a console and contribute to hurt PC gaming?

That my friend has been happening since PC's hit the desktop market way back when and it is because of that that we are were we are today with the technology Thank Heavens. PC games have had ups and downs in the market since as long as I can remember but we don't just get top notch PC's these days just to play games do we and as for consoles well if I was that way inclined which I haven't beeen since the demise of the SNES I would just plug it into my beautiful 30" Dell monitor and go "YUK how disgusting" and that would be the end of that - throw the console in the bin? The reason for the console rise at the moment IMHO is because there is so many more bloody games coming out for it then the PC and I know why.

[Benfica]

That my friend has been happening since PC's hit the desktop market way back when and it is because of that that we are were we are today with the technology Thank Heavens. PC games have had ups and downs in the market since as long as I can remember but we don't just get top notch PC's these days just to play games do we and as for consoles well if I was that way inclined which I haven't beeen since the demise of the SNES I would just plug it into my beautiful 30" Dell monitor and go "YUK how disgusting" and that would be the end of that - throw the console in the bin? The reason for the console rise at the moment IMHO is because there is so many more bloody games coming out for it then the PC and I know why.

Ok, PC is losing due to other reasons, warez, friends can play together with a console:, etc...
My main point is that a lot of people believe that gaming must be too expensive. Because when someone says that "rig A is not fast enough for gaming, you should upgrade", people are always talking about the max settings, the "highest your res, the more you need" AA , etc.., not the image quality of a console.

Still most of this BS becomes from review sites where the cards are shown on the left, and the ads to buy one appear on the right.