NVIDIA rolls out lower-tier GeForce 9600 GSO

by Stevie Smith - Apr 29 2008, 13:31

Finally moving to plug the yawning gap in its product portfolio, renowned graphics specialist NVIDIA has whipped the covers off its new GeForce 9600 GSO, a new card designed specifically to cater for the low-to-mid-range section of the hardware market.

NVIDIA introduces its GeForce 9600 GSO for entry level enthusiasts. Image: NVIDIA.

Likely to be puffing its chest out against AMD’s rival ATI Radeon 3600 series for entry-level bragging rights, the GeForce 9600 GSO offers up a hefty 96 stream processors, more than its 9600 GT big brother, and delivers a core clock speed of 550MHz, a shader speed of 1.375MHz, and a memory speed of 800MHz. While the stream processor figure is superior to the 9600 GT, the clock speeds all fall some way shorter of the GT’s comparative level of performance when assessing the bigger picture, according to the tech gurus as Trusted Reviews. More pointedly, while the new 9600 GSO pushes a 192-bit interface with 384MB of RAM, which should still see it performing fairly well across the board, performance and memory issues may surface when users move to factor in the desired use of anti-aliasing. But, bearing in mind the entry-level status of the GeForce 9600 GSO, it should be a compelling option for those not enamoured with the similarly positioned ATI Radeon 3600 series, or those perhaps looking to secure NVIDIA quality without having to shell out the extra cash for the more overtly oomph-worthy 9600 GT. With current GBP price tags swaying between 80-100, prospective consumers also get SLI capability and PCIe 2.0 support thrown into the deal, along with PureVideo HD for Blu-ray (and HD DVD) playback, Dynamic Contrast Enhancement and also DirectX 10 in a package designed by NVIDIA to put “amazing graphics performance within your reach.”