Over a year has passed since the launch of GeForce 8600 and almost a year since the launch of GeForce 8800 GT. It's high time to update these price ranges. GeForce 9500 GT has actually been overhauled with thinner 55nm process technology, higher shader frequencies, 512 MB of memory. But GeForce 9800 GT hasn't changed. It still uses G92 at frequencies of 8800 GT and has the same 512 MB of memory. Just memory latency has been reduced a little, so it works a little faster now at the same clock rates. That's it, actually. Even the new G92 revision gives nothing to users, as the architecture and clock rates are the same.
So we'd like to ask: on what grounds did they change "8" to "9"? The transition from "7" to "8" was justified, because engineers radically modified the architecture and introduced the DX10 support. But in this case it's just a marketing trick, nothing more.
So when you see both GeForce 8800 GT and 9800 GT cards in stores, be sure to find out their clock rates and then buy a higher-frequency product. If clock rates are the same, buy what's cheaper.
With 9500 GT it's more difficult. We suspect that it may be cheaper than 8600 GTS at similar performance, if 9600 GTS has 512 MB of memory. So it's hard to give any advices here. Everything depends on a given card and its clock rates. But 9500 GT has essentially the same architecture as 8600.
To prove our assumptions right or wrong, we've tested seven cards based on 9500 GT and 9800 GT GPUs operating at different frequencies. Here is what we have got.
Graphics Cards
ECS GeForce 9800 GT (Fan Edition) 512MB
ECS GeForce 9800 GT (Pipe Edition) 512MB
Palit GeForce 9800 GT Sonic 512MB
Zotac GeForce 9800 GT AMP! Edition 512MB |
The graphics card has 512 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM allocated in eight chips on the front side of the PCB.
Samsung memory chips (GDDR3). 1.0 ns memory access time, which corresponds to 1000 (2000) MHz. |
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Galaxy GeForce 9500 GT Overclocked 512MB
Zotac GeForce 9500 GT AMP! Edition 512MB |
Each graphics card has 512 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM allocated in eight chips on the front and back sides of the PCB.
Samsung memory chips (GDDR3). 1.0 ns memory access time, which corresponds to 1000 (2000) MHz. |
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| ECS GeForce 9500 GT 512MB |
The graphics card has 512 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM allocated in four chips on the front side of the PCB.
Samsung memory chips (GDDR3). 1.2 ns memory access time, which corresponds to 800 (1600) MHz. |
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| Comparison with the reference design, front view |
| ECS GeForce 9800 GT (Pipe Edition) 512MB |
Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT |
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| ECS GeForce 9800 GT (Fan Edition) 512MB |
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| Palit GeForce 9800 GT Sonic 512MB |
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| Zotac GeForce 9800 GT AMP! Edition 512MB |
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| ECS GeForce 9500 GT 512MB |
Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS |
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| Galaxy GeForce 9500 GT Overclocked 512MB |
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| Zotac GeForce 9500 GT AMP! Edition 512MB |
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| Comparison with the reference design, back view |
| ECS GeForce 9800 GT (Pipe Edition) 512MB |
Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT |
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| ECS GeForce 9800 GT (Fan Edition) 512MB |
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| Palit GeForce 9800 GT Sonic 512MB |
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| Zotac GeForce 9800 GT AMP! Edition 512MB |
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| ECS GeForce 9500 GT 512MB |
Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS |
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| Galaxy GeForce 9500 GT Overclocked 512MB |
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| Zotac GeForce 9500 GT AMP! Edition 512MB |
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We can see that only Zotac's 9800 GT is very close to the 8800 GT reference design. Other products are customized to a certain degree. As there are very few differences between 9800 GT and 8800 GT, we can assume that all these changes have been introduced to make cards cheaper. And Palit's card is designed for 1 GB of memory, as there are empty seats for memory chips on the back of its PCB.
The same can be said about 9500GT-based cards, PCBs of which differ much from the reference 8600GTS. However, this time changes make more sense, as new cards are based on the revised core with different power requirements.
Let's examine the cards. The G92 label on 9800GT hasn't changed from "G92-270-A2", just like in 8800GT. That's another proof that the core is the same. The 9500GT is labeled differently, of course, because it's based on the new G96 core.
GeForce 9800 GT
GeForce 9500 GT
All cards have TV-Outs with original jacks. You will need a special bundled adapter to output video to a TV set via S-Video or RCA.
An analog monitor with a D-Sub (VGA) interface can be connected by means of a special DVI-to-D-Sub adapter. The bundle also includes a DVI-to-HDMI adapter (these graphics cards support video/audio output to HDMI receivers), so there should be no problems with such a monitor.
Maximum resolutions and frequencies:
- 240 Hz maximum refresh rate
- 2048 x 1536 x 32bit @ 85Hz Max - analog interface
- 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz Max - digital interface (all Dual-Link DVIs)
As of MPEG2 playback (DVD-Video), we analyzed this issue in 2002. Little has changed since that time. CPU load during video playback on modern graphics cards does not exceed 25%.
As of HDTV, a review is available here.
All 9800 GT cards require additional power source, so each is bundled with a molex to 6-pin adapter, even though all modern PSUs have such cables. Note that 9500 GT cards (except for the Galaxy card) do not have such power requirements, unlike 8600 GTS. Galaxy engineers decided to ensure stable operation at increased frequencies by utilizing an additional (external) power source.
