New PureVideo?
There’s no other change between the G94 and the G92 – at least not officially. The improvement in ROPs (a better compression ratio at high resolutions) nVidia is touting was already present on the G92, and hasn’t changed, like the improvement in texturing units (doubling the number of address processors per filter unit). The only addition is native DisplayPort support (the presence of the interface was left to the partners’ discretion).
The same goes for PureVideo – the GeForce 9600 GT’s implementation is identical to the 8800 GT’s (PureVideo 2). On the other hand, new PureVideo HD functions have been added via the 174. drivers, which were made available to the press just for the 9600 GT. There are four improvements: dynamic enhancement of contrast (the exposure of each frame can be corrected via the histogram, meaning that it’s calculated 30 times per second) and color, simultaneous dual-stream video decoding (Picture In Picture is supported, though with new versions of the players), and finally, the possibility of keeping the Aero interface when playing HD video.
In practice, we examined the differences using several films (we weren’t able to take captures of HD films), and the only one we thought we could discern was watching Full Metal Jacket, Chapter 7, where the detail in the backlit shadows seemed a little better with the 174. drivers (due to the improved contrast) – but the difference doesn’t really jump out at you. That makes sense, since the masters for HD movies are especially carefully prepared, and unlike a TV signal, with HD there’s not much that needs improvement.
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Nice analysis as always but does anyone every proof read this stuff. On
Page 17 it seems clear that the TH UK guys were sent it by the American site and they forgot to check all the links, hence the [link to your 8800GT 256MB article here] comment. Also a mix up on the first page saying the 8800GTX had 786 not 768 ram.
It seems to get worse and worse!
Seems like a very good card. Fewer shading units, but faster memory than the 8800 GT. That 256-bit memory interface really shines, although I would not personally be willing to use any 9600 GT with less than 512MB, certainly not if they switched from GDDR3 to something inferior. I would buy this card and at this price I think it fills the mid-range gap very nicely. Thanks Tom.
Don't forget that the driver it's a new one...
I had msi 8600gt oc and i see big diferrent between 163.75 and 169.25 forceware driver so maybe the 9600gt come closer to 8800gt and with little overclocking maybe it can pass it!!
Ok so what happened to the next Generation should be faster and more powerful than the previous... Good rule I thought...
This is not good news for us recent EVGA buyers waiting for the new 8800 GTX/Ultra GPU killer...
Bob
Bob, it's classed as a mid-range card, but is able to compete with 8xxx series high-end cards. With more shader units it would be faster. Sure you can make it faster, but the cost soon jumps. Considering the kind of card it can out-class I think it's a very good card for the money.
Overclock the shaders. That should bring the performance up somewhat.
Still, why didn't they badge it as the 8650 or something? This generation-jumping that ATi started with the 3850/3870 gets incredibly confusing after a while. I'd hate to know how the poor saps in retail are coping with it, particularly with the average client/gamer IQ.
Yeh,
If they had just started the 9xxx series with the G92 8800GT and 8800GTS then everyones lives would be simplier!!
Bob