Opinions on eVGA 9600 GSO 1GB?

[Krusty]

Hi all. Lately I got a budget replacement card. Price was right and it was listed as a 9600...

Figured it would at least let me run the new terrain (and it has!). However I'm wondering about the card's real power. I read somewhere that the real GSO specs were one thing, then cut in half (specs were changed by nvidia??).

It's got only 48 streaming processors where it ought to have 92 some say., core of 600MHz, memory 800MHz with 1 GB of 256-bit ram of DDR2.

Did a quick search and other than learning it's the re-named 8800 GS, I don't know much about it. Was a purchase based off necessity, rather than options.

So I'm wondering what I've got, gaming-wise. How much muscle can I flex in Aces High graphics settings?

Naturally these 1GB older cards just have extra cheap memory tacked on to try to impress people, but does anybody else have any info to share?

P.S. I know, I wish I could have got a GT or something, but I couldn't so I didn't. Better than the Radeon 9550 with passive cooling I had in there before!

[Motherland]

Wouldn't the best idea just be to test it?

I've got an 8600GT and I run detailed terrain, hi res, detailed water & local reflections, 1 notch of AA, detail sliders about 3/4 of the way up, and 4096x4096 shadows (not smoothed). You should be able to crank pretty good with an 8800 I would think.

[gyrene81]

Krusty, I have a 9600GT 512MB DDR3...and it suxxors. Could be something other than the vid card that was causing the stutters and stuff but...I went through a couple of months of patch# good then patch# bad...I can tell you it will run all of the CoD games, all of the Total War games and almost anything else on max settings...except AH.

Upgraded to the GTS250 512MB DDR3 and no more problems in AH.

[Krusty]

I did "some" testing...

Thing is offline and online are different. Offline a little stutter might be acceptable, online it's not.

I ran the full detail sliders, and it kept hitching when loading all the trees, so I slid it back to "around 3 miles" (which used to be the previous max distance). I put on all the details except shadows. Shadows reduced FPS pretty noticably.

On the other hand, I don't know how much FSAA I can get away with. It's got craploads of memory, but how fast it swaps things in and out -- eh, I dunno. HL2:Ep2 runs "okay" with all details maxed except aniso and FSAA, but dips below 30 fps in many places. Particles and smoke and such still seem to slow it down a little.

Problem is I don't have that many games to benchmark it on (most of mine are older). A benchmark like 3DMark wouldn't help too much, since it'll give me an arbitrary number. I don't benchmark all that often and it'll mean little to me.


So any thoughts or comments welcome. I imagine I can run most things, but if I were running FEAR2, would it be on minimum details? Or cranked?


EDIT: Gyrene, thanks for the comment. Funny that AH is so GPU intensive when cranked up nowadays. It's all the shadows and new terrains!

[Masherbrum]

Zohan claimed the "Greatness of the 9600GSO" in the Spring.   His "experiment" caused his Card to become a paperweight.   

My 8800GTS doesn't break a sweat at full detail @ 4 miles and Hi-Res.    I run 64 Bit Vista and if you're on 32 bit, the 1GB can come into play with Total System Memory.   

I have my FSAA at 8xQ, but for AH only it s not necessary.  I play Left For Dead 2 and other games, so I leave it alone for AH. 

[Krusty]

Apparently I have the severely reduced model (half the processors, half power, doesn't even need a 6-pin power plug!) specific to eVGA, which might explain the little stutters at 4mi detail.

Ugh.. I shoulda known when I saw the eVGA logo! It's also "only" got a 2-year warranty, which means it'll die right about then due to bad capacitors.

Oh well. Like I said, budget card, bought out of necessity. I was only borrowing the Radeon 9550 from my sister's machine and she needed it back, so I grabbed the cheapest semi-gaming-capable card I could. Hope to totally upgrade mobo/cpu/ram/video at a later (much later?) time, so this only has to last until then.

[Masherbrum]

Apparently I have the severely reduced model (half the processors, half power, doesn't even need a 6-pin power plug!) specific to eVGA, which might explain the little stutters at 4mi detail.

Ugh.. I shoulda known when I saw the eVGA logo! It's also "only" got a 2-year warranty, which means it'll die right about then due to bad capacitors.

Oh well. Like I said, budget card, bought out of necessity. I was only borrowing the Radeon 9550 from my sister's machine and she needed it back, so I grabbed the cheapest semi-gaming-capable card I could. Hope to totally upgrade mobo/cpu/ram/video at a later (much later?) time, so this only has to last until then.

Don't buy into the "unlocking the 9600GSO myth".   You realize what you bought and that is the crux of it.   eVGA's warranty work is phenomenal.   I RMA'd a 7900GT last Turkey Day and received an 8800GT at absolutely no cost to me.   I had no use for it and gave BJ229r a Xmas gift.   

[TilDeath]

You really want to know... Get GPU-Z  This will give you all your cards specs without a doubt.

TD

[Krusty]

Shazbot! Didn't know about that one. I've got CPU-Z. I'll have a look-see on google.

Thanks

[RTHolmes]

Anyone know if the "Memory Used" data in CPU-Z is accurate? or does it suffer from the same problem as the memory usage number ingame in AH?

[Krusty]

I was under the impression it's a problem with DirectX itself, so I'd assume it has the same issues as AH2.

[Anodizer]

Why do you always go for these mid-range cards?  Get a GTX260 or above and be done with it for a couple years..
Don't get me wrong, I used to own a 9600GT that I was totally happy with..  It overclocked great!!  However, after the big update over the summer/fall(or when ever that was), all those new graphic options became a hassle and
the game did not perform anything close to what it used to..  I couldn't use any of the shadow options without massacring the frame rate(down to like 30-40 which is unplayable for me)..  I had to drop the resolution down to 1440X900 or less and reduce the FSAA..  A few months ago, I picked up gtx260 and then participated in the step up program a month later when the GTX285's temporarily fell in price a bit.. Damn dude!  You can even get a GTS 250 for $30.00 more than that 9600GSO and have more than twice the performance!!  Think ahead.... 
What do you have now?  I'll even let you borrow a card(got rescued 7950 and 6800Ultra I keep as spares) so you can save your money up and get something better...

[Noir]

the problem with nvidia policy is that you can get any frequencies and stream processor numbers under a same card name...when I bought this Radeon 5770 I knew exactly what I was getting.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Typically GSO = neutered. So whatever you're getting it won't be running like the basic specs would suggest.

I've heard that some GSO models have actually been great bang for buck, I would not get one however before doing thorough investigation (benchmarks, user reviews etc.)

[Spikes]

the problem with nvidia policy is that you can get any frequencies and stream processor numbers under a same card name...when I bought this Radeon 5770 I knew exactly what I was getting.

Same, 5770 rocks! I'm kind of a Radeon fanboi anyway, though.