GeForce G310 - NvidiaBloggo - All the latest Nvidia news! 2010

Benchmark tests

3DMark 06

Asus EN9600GT

- 1600×1200 (filters on)  - 6650
- 1600×1200 (filters off) - 9244
- 1280×1024 (filters on)  - 8036
- 1280×1024 (filters off) - 10939

Gainward 9600 GT

- 1600×1200 (filters on)  - 7191
- 1600×1200 (filters off) - 9900
- 1280×1024 (filters on)  - 8668
- 1280×1024 (filters off) - 11677

Pixel Shader

Asus EN9600GT

- 1600×1200 - 226
- 1280×1024 - 312

Gainward 9600 GT

- 1600×1200 - 247
- 1280×1024 - 340

Vertex Shader

ASUS EN9600GT

- Complex - 131
- Simple  - 232

Gainward 9600 GT

- Complex - 140
- Simple  - 240

FillRate

ASUS EN9600 GT

- Multi-Texturing - 15151
- Single-Texturing - 5224

Gainward 9600 GT

- Multi-Texturing - 16524
- Single-Texturing - 5616

Benchmark tests

All the benchmark tests are done in two different resolutions, 1280×1024 and 1600×1200, with and without AA4x and AF8x filters.

3DMark 05

Asus EN9600GT

- 1600×1200 (filters on)  - 11811
- 1600×1200 (filters off) - 14891
- 1280×1024 (filters on)  - 13877
- 1280×1024 (filters off) - 16222

Gainward 9600 GT

- 1600×1200 (filters on)  - 12720
- 1600×1200 (filters off) - 15305
- 1280×1024 (filters on)  - 14644
- 1280×1024 (filters off) - 16409

Gainward Bliss 9600GT Golden Sample

The fan is normally set at 35% when in auto mode. It’s truly silent and keeps the card at around 33°C, while in full load, always with the auto settings, the temperature goes to 45°C. If the fan is set at 100%, the noise is bigger, but in full mode, the temperatures don’t pass the 40°C.

The rest of the card’s features are also interesting, like the HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, the optic audio output and two DVI outputs, putting itself in line with basically most of the standards currently present n the market.

The bundle that Gainward offers is very rich, featuring a paper manual and CD with drivers and utilities, Cyberlink DVD Solution, Tomb Raider Anniversary game, PCIe power cable and HDMI audio cable.

Gainward Bliss 9600GT Golden Sample

Now the Gainward model, featuring a very pleasant design, clock frequencies higher than the standard and HDMI and DisplayPort connections. The core on this card works at 700Mhz, 50Mhz more than the standard version. The shaders are clocked at 1750Mhz (1625Mhz standard) and the 512MB of memory are set at 1000Mhz, 100Mhz more than the standard. These settings will guarantee, as it’ll be seen on the tests, a better performance on this card.

The cooling system is also worth mentioning. Underneath the black-and-red plastic cover that gives a particular design to the Gainward cards, there’s a heatsink with a copper base, aluminium fins and copper heatpipes. On the top of it all, a 70mm fan. The memory chips are also covered by an aluminum board, which keeps them cooled thanks to the fan.

The memory chips aren’t covered, and the peculiar heatsink cools them in any case. In idle, the card reaches 34°C, while under stress, the temperatures reach 48°C. The card also features a 6-pin PCIe connector for the additional power supply, a SLI and audio connectors.

The bundle offered by Asus also includes a paper and CD manual, driver CD, DVI-VGA adapter, DVI-HDMI adapter, S-Video cable and audio cables.

ASUS EN9600GT

The Asus EN9600GT model is exactly the same as the reference board except for the heatsink. The core and the 512MB memory work at 650Mhz and 900Mhz respectively, while the shaders work at 1625Mhz.

The cooling system is different from nVidia’s standard, and it occupies 2 PCI slots instead of one, but it guarantees great working temperatures and is very silent even during stressful gaming situations. This cooling system is called “Glaciator Fancsink”, and it is made of aluminium fins placed underneath a 80mm fan.

Another difference from the G92 is the DisplayPort support, that is an option for each brand whether to introduce it on their cards or not. Moreover, the GeForce 9600 GT, just like the 8800GT, features the PureVideo2 technology, except that for the G94 there’s a updated version, to which the PureVideo HD features were added.

The enhancements are the following:

- Dynamic Contrast Enhancement
- Dual Stream Decode Acceleration
- Blue, Green and Skin Tones enhancement
- Possibility of keeping the Windows Vista’s Aero interface also during a HD video.

Architecture

Let’s analyze the work done by nVidia on the new GPU. The G94 is more similar to the G92 than the G84, in fact, it seems to be a “half” G92, with the half of the number of Stream Processors. These, however, work at higher frequencies than the G92 from the 8800GT: 1625Mhz for the 9600GT against the 1500Mhz from the 8800GT.

As we’ve noticed many other times, making the shaders work in higher frequencies translates into great performances and reduces the number of units present on the card, allowing for a smaller, more simple and cheaper chip. The goal achieved by nVidia’s engineers was to reach a high calculation power while using less units that work on higher frequencies.

This GPU comes directly from the G92 family, from which the 8800 GT-GTS and later the 9800GTX and GX were born, but compared to these, the GPU was simplified, due to the mid-entry range on this card, and in order to keep manufacturing costs low and offer a somewhat low price to customers as well.

All of this was achieved without ignoring the performance. In fact, as we review this model, it’ll be clear that the performances on this card are rather noticeable, especially when compared to previous mid-range models.

With the 9600GT series, nVidia has made a revolution in their mid-range level cards, showing a huge jump in performance when compared to the previous series’ mid-range card, the 8600 GT, while keeping the costs at an average price for this type of card.

In order to highlight the quality on their product, for the first time nVidia decided to open a new series of graphic cards with the mid-range model, instead of their top line. In fact, the first GeForce 9 was indeed the 9600GT.