Up for review today is MSI's N9600GT OC, based on NVIDIA's GeForce 9600 GT. The
N9600GT T2D512 OC comes with 512MB DDR3 RAM, enhanced clocks, and specialized cooling. There is a
full array of NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GTs available now with several like the N9600GT
OC having received performance enhanced tweaks such as increasing core, shader, and memory clock speeds. However, MSI has gone one better and provided increased cooling for the GPU at the expense of taking over an additional case slot. This is nothing new now and we have become acclimated to losing a slot for the sake of performance in many instances.
Whether or not this is acceptable depends on the performance gained over
the standard 9600 GT, not to mention the competition's solutions in the high
performance realm for mid-stream video cards. The MSI N9600GT T2D512 OC graphics card uses a slightly overclocked GeForce
9600GT (G94) GPU at 700MHz (650MHz default). The 512MB of DDR3 RAM is clocked at 950MHz (900MHz default) and the shader clock is at 1680MHz (1625MHz default).
MSI
N9600GT
MSI is no stranger to graphic cards, especially high performance cards and they have gone one better on the cooling of this particular card. To enhance cooling a custom heatpipe VGA cooler has been employed. This does necessitate a two-slot
solution which exhausts the heated air generated by the card out the rear of the case. This in itself is an acceptable feature rather than having the case's airflow configuration have to deal with the additional heat to expel from the
case.
I like the racy design of the bright red-tinted semi-clear ribbed plastic
shell encasing the card and the larger fan and heatpipe-assisted heatsink for cooling.
SPECIFICATIONS
Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Bus Type: PCI-E 2.0
GPU Clock: 700 MHz
Shader Clock: 1680 MHz
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Memory Type: DDR3
Memory Size: 512MB
Memory Speed: 2.0GHz
Memory Bandwidth: 60.8GB/sec
Thermal Solution: FANSINK
Minimum Power Supply: 400 Watt / 6-pin connector
Outputs: TV Out - HDTV, VGA - 0, DVI - 2
Dual-Link Support: Dual
HDMI: No
Max Supported Resolution (Digital): 2560 x 1600
Max Supported Resolution (Analog): 2048 x 1536
Turbo Cache Technology: No
RoHS: Yes
HDCP: Yes
NVIDIA-SLI READY: 2 way
Low Profile Compatible: No
MSI N9600GT T2D512
OC Features
* HDMI with Audio Integration Solution (Optional)
The NVIDIA GeForce 9 Series graphics card supports HDMI with audio integration
solution. With a DVI-to-HDMI adapter and an extra signal cord through the bracket, audio source from sound card (S/PDIF) can be integrated into HDMI interface by simply plugging the cord into the pinhead located on graphics card.
Only 1 single HDMI cable is required while streaming audio and video data to
flat-panel display devices, such as Plasma/LCD TVs, or projector.
* NVIDIA Unified Architecture
Fully unified shader core dynamically allocates processing power to geometry,
vertex, physics, or pixel shading operation, delivering up to 2x the gaming
performance of prior generation GPUs.
* Full Microsoft DirectX 10 Support
World's first DirectX10 GPU with full Shader model 4.0 support delivers
unparalleled levels of graphics realism and film-quality effects.
* NVIDIA SLI Technology
Delivers up to 2x the performance of a single GPU configuration for unequaled
gaming experiences by allowing two cards to run in parallel. The must-have
feature for performance PCI Express graphics, SLI technology dramatically scales
performance on today's hottest games.
* PCI Express 2.0 Support
Designed to run perfectly with the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture, offering a future-proofing bridge to tomorrow's most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications by
maximizing the 5GT/s PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth (twice that of first generation
PCI Express).
PCI Express 2.0 products are fully backwards compatible with
existing PCI Express motherboards for broadest support.
* Giga Thread Technology
Massively multi-threaded architecture supports thousands of independent,
simultaneous treads, providing extreme processing efficiency in advanced, next
generation shader programs.
* 128-bit Floating Point High Dynamic-Range (HDR) Lighting
Twice the precision of prior generations for incredibly realistic lighting
effects -- now with support for anti-aliasing.
* NVIDIA Quantum Effects Technology
Advanced shader processors architected for physics computation enable a new
level of physics effects to be simulated and rendered on the GPU -- all while
freeing the CPU to run the game engine and AI.
Delivers a proven record of compatibility, reliability, and stability with the
widest range of games and applications. ForceWare provides the best out-of-box
experience for every user and delivers continuous performance and feature
updates over the life of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs.
* OpenGL 2.1 Optimizations and Support
Ensures top-notch compatibility and performance for OpenGL applications.
* Dual Stream Decode Acceleration
Hardware acceleration for HD picture-in-picture enables a complete HD movie
playback experience
* 16x Anti-aliasing Technology
Lightning fast, high-quality anti-aliasing at up to 16x sample rates obliterates
jagged edges.
* Edge Enhancement
Sharpens movie images by providing higher contrast around lines and objects.
* Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
Blazing-fast RAMDACs support dual QXGA displays with ultra-high, ergonomic
refresh rates - up to 2048x1536@85Hz.
* Dual Dual-link DVI Support
Able to drive the industry's largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays
up to 2560x1600 and with support for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP).
* NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology
The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing
that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and
precise image scaling for movies and video.
* Discrete, Programmable Video Processor
NVIDIA PureVideo is a discrete programmable processing core in NVIDIA GPUs that
provides superb picture quality and ultra-smooth movies with100% offload of
H.264 video decoding from the CPU and significantly reduced power consumption.
* HDCP Capable
Designed to meet the output protection management (HDCP) and security
specifications of the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats, allowing the playback of
encrypted movie content on PCs when connected to HDCP-compliant displays.
* High-Quality Scaling
Enlarges lower resolution movies and videos to HDTV resolutions, while
maintaining a clear, clean image. Also provides downscaling of videos, including
high-definition, while preserving image detail.
* Integrated SD and HD TV Output
World-class TV-out functionality via Composite, S-Video, Component or DVI
connections.
Supports resolutions up to 1080i/1080p, depending on connection type and TV
capability.
BUNDLE
Bundle
What came in the box
DVI to D-Sub adapter
S to S TV-out Extended Cable
HDTV / Video-out Connecting Cable
Internal SPDIF Cable
DVI/HDMI Adapter
MSI Installation CD
Quick Install Guide
Not a robust bundle of accessories but nevertheless interesting with the DVI
to HDMI adapter that could come in very handy. With a DVI-to-HDMI adapter and an
extra signal cord through the bracket, audio source from sound card (S/PDIF) can
be integrated into HDMI interface by simply plugging the cord into the pinhead
located on graphics card. This is all that is required to stream audio/video
signal to a Plasma or LCD TV.
Dual Slot Solution
With the extra cooling and expelling heated air out the back of the case the
card requires a 2-slot solution. Increased temperature generated at overclock
settings were controlled adequately so so for me giving up the extra slot is
acceptable for the performance gained.
N9600GT OC Cooling
MSI has incorporated their own cooling enhancements, namely a fan with blades
of a design to promote air flow and at the same time a casing that assists the
fan design to help reduce tuberlance and noise. The cooling system does a good
job as the highest temperature I recorded in the benchmarks with my handheld
temp gun was 52.4°C in Crysis benchmarking.
INSTALLATION
Installation was no problem in the Antec P-180 case. Even with taking over
two slots there is plenty of room for additional x16 PCI-E video cards. The
P-180 does mount the PSU at the bottom and this requires the auxiliary power cord
to cross over the PCI-E slots to make the motherboard connection. Fortunately, I
have enough slack to re-route the cord if additional cards are installed. I do
have handy an extension for the PC Power & Cooling
power cord, if needed.
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 / DirectX 9.0c
* The Q6600 was clocked at 1333MHz using the
default '9' multiplier for an effective clock of 3GHz with the system ram at
800MHz.
Test Applications
Aquamark 3 - v3.0
3DMark2006 - v1.10
F.E.A.R. - v1.08
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl - v1.0003
Crysis - v1.2.1
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare v1.5
OVERCLOCKING
The N9600GT OC came 'out-of-the-box' with timings
of 700MHz on the GPU clock, 950MHz on the
memory clock, and 1680MHz on the shader clock. This compares to the
'stock' NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT clocks of 650MHz/900MHz/1625MHz respectively.
Overclocked but conservatively compared to other factory overclocked cards
currently available. I left the
shaders at the 1680MHz and first concentrated on the GPU and memory clocks. The
card was responsive and stable in all testing at settings of 740MHz on the GPU
and 1100MHz on the memory. After running
multiple tests without any problems I decided to up the GPU clocks although I
have been told there is not much 'headroom' above 740MHz. I stopped at
800MHz experiencing only some stability problems with 3DMark2006 at the
1920x1200 resolution. I was however able to make sufficient runs through the
benchmark at this resolution to post an average score that just broke the 10K
mark which I would relate as a very respectable score for the 9600GT. Still,
locking up in 'FireFly' a couple of times is two times too many and
unacceptable. Further efforts need to be made here but first let's see what
we've got.
Highest Overclock and Related Temperatures
Above recorded temperature
of 51°C was taken during testing in F.E.A.R at 1920x1200, 4xAAA / 16xAF
running at 800/1100/1680. Temperature did exceed this reading later when running
at an overclock of 775/1060/2100 in Crysis where the maximum temperature read 53°C
in nTune monitor.
In
addition, I frequently check surface temperatures using a portable hand-held
Raytek MiniTemp MT4 infrared laser thermometer. This unit gave me a reading of
52.4°C as a maximum temperature during testing
in this review.
NVIDIA's
nTune utility software program was used to capture the displayed overclock settings and
temperature reading.
Above is the listing of performance settings and
temperature graph provided by nTune. (I updated to the new NVIDIA nForce System
Tools v6.01 shortly
after these initial overclocking results were taken.) With a maximum
recorded GPU temperature during testing of 53°C
(nForce System Tools), 52.4°C
(hand-held thermometer) hottest spot located on the back surface of the card, it
was evident that MSI did a good job with the N9600GT OC's cooling solution.
nForce System Tools v6.01 (Profiles)
With a considerable amount of 'tweaking' I found a
stable overclock with shader clock at 775/1061/2100. I could have saved some time
with the new NVIDIA nForce System Tools as to my surprise by activating and running 'optimal'
selection for graphic card timings revealed a 787/1065/2117 set of clocks. While
stable in most games the 1920x1200 proved to not be entirely stable in
S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Crysis so I stayed with the 775/1061/2100 overclock timings.
In S.T.A.L.K.E.R overclocking was not needed while in Crysis it did add a few
frames and every little bit helps in that game.
SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS
Aquamark3
Multiple runs were made of the benchmark and final
results were an average of those runs for both the overall score and the
graphics score.
Aquamark 3 Results
Q6600 @ 3.0GHz
MSI N9600GT OC
Aquamark3 results revealed little difference with
less than a 2% increase with overclock settings in both the overall and graphics
score. The benchmark ran stable throughout all tests even with the maximum 4xAA
/ 8xAF applied at higher resolutions.
Additional tests with the Q6600 clocked at
3.2GHz did yield almost a 7% on the overall score with a 177.19 FPS result.
Likewise the graphics score recorded 34206 or better than a 6% increase in
performance with the card at default clocks.
3DMark2006
All recorded tests below were obtained with the
Q6600 running at 3.0GHz. At 3.2GHz the results increased only about 1% through
each of the different test settings.
With this benchmark Shader Models 2.0 and 3.0 are used exclusively for all vertex and pixel processing
while the engine builds the shaders for each material in HLSL (high level shader language) and
compiles in runtime by the GPU drivers. Results are shown at the different
resolutions with default clocks and then at the overclock settings of 740MHz on
the GPU and 1100MHz on the memory. An additional overclock result was recorded
with the GPU clocks increased to 800MHz and memory clocks to 1100MHz. The shader
clock was not overclocked over the
default settings of the N9600GT OC except for the last test with the GPU and
memory overclocks 'tweaked' and the additional MHz added to the shader clock
which provided a significant increase.
3DMARK06 - Results
At the lowest resolution of 1280x1024 the overclocking
the N9600GT OC
gave a solid increase in performance results both at 740/1100 and 800/1100.
However, once I began tweaking and overclocking the shaders a new performance
field opened up. At 775/1060 with the shader clock at 2100MHz the 3DMK06
score jumped to 13,451. I am beginning to like this card with the extra headroom
MSI has provided. Now for some gaming
results.
GAMING BENCHMARKS
F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. in-game benchmark applies stress with
application of soft shadows, volumetric lighting,
particle effects, and parallax mapping. I set all in-game selections to
'Maximum' and turned on all available effects such as 'soft light' for running
the benchmark with N9600GT OC. The game has high resolution textures both bump
mapped and parallax mapped and actually stress the card much more than the
benchmark in many instances so a minimum of 40 FPS is needed for smooth play.
Three resolutions (1280x1024, 1680x1050, 1920x1200)
were used with antialiasing (AA) and
anisotropic filtering
(AF) settings of no AA/AF and 4xAA/16AF applied as indicated in the bar chart below.
The N9600GT OC was run through the benchmark with default clocks (700/950),
overclocks on the GPU and memory of 740/1100 and 800/1100. Each setting was run a minimum
of three times and an average of the runs was recorded as
the final result.
F.E.A.R - Results
MSI N9600GT OC 700/950
F.E.A.R. does take its toll on graphic cards when
the resolution is increased and antialiasing along with
anisotropic filtering applied. With in-game settings maxed-out the N9600GT OC
yielded an average result of 34 FPS for 1920x1200 with 4xAA and 16xAF applied. While this result was consistent during each run of the in-game benchmark
an average of 34 FPS with minimum frame rates dropping to 20 FPS is not
sufficient for smooth gameplay. In my experience average frame rates do need to be
well above 40 FPS for playing F.E.A.R. With the AA turned down to 2x and the AF
at 8x the game played smoothly with frame rates well above 40 FPS average.
F.E.A.R - Results
MSI N9600GT OC 740/1100
Overclocking the GPU and memory card to 740/1100 increased
performance in this benchmark about 7 FPS with no antialiasing and no
anisotropic filtering applied. With 4xAA and 16xAF overclocking still was below
40 FPS.
F.E.A.R - Results
MSI N9600GT OC 800/1100
While additional overclocking the GPU and memory
did improve scores at the 1280x1024 and 1680x1050 resolutions when 4xAA and
16xAF was applied the frame rate took a nosedive below the 40 FPS mark at
1920x1200 resolution. Again, with no AA/AF applied frame rates were good at the
higher resolution but like lower resolutions only acceptable performance was
achieved at 2xAA settings or lower. Still, at the present price-point the
performance is significant to previous experiences with 8600 series in this
game.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
With the MSI N9600GT OC I just skipped the first two
rendering modes in the in-game setup and went strictly with the 'Full Dynamic' Lighting
selection.
The "Buildings Demo" benchmark was used for
testing the N9600GT OC in this game. Three resolutions of 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200
were used with in-game settings maxed-out. A minimum of three
runs through each benchmark were made with an average recorded as the final
result.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Results
Buildings Timedemo
All in-game settings @ maximum
I used
"Full
Dynamic Lighting" mode (this enables 'Lighting Distance' and 'Shadows Quality'
in Advanced menu) in the BASIC menu screen and set quality to MAXIMUM (this
enables 'Sun Shadow' in Advanced menu). In the
ADVANCE menu I set the 'Vision Distance' slider to approximately 100%, 'Objects
Detail'
to 100%, 'Grass Density' to a full 100%, 'Textures Detail' to 100%,
'Anisotropic Filtering' to 100%, 'Antialiasing' slider to 100%, activated
'Sun Shadow', activated 'Grass Shadow', set 'Lighting Distance' to about 100%, activated
'NPC Flashlights', and set
'Shadows Quality' slider to 100%. At these settings the above results were taken
from the recorded in-game timedemo.
The N9600GT OC breezed through the
benchmark with no problem at default settings. Game experience was excellent
with this card. Gameplay temperatures were 37°C
at idle with a maximum recorded
temperature of 53°C
using the NVIDIA nForce System Tools monitor.
CRYSIS
Trying to get high frame rates in this game is
difficult with high-end cards let alone a mid-stream card. Again, resolution
settings of 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 were used. I ran the custom
timedemo in both 'High' and 'Medium' in-game settings with the results
identified the charts below.
CRYSIS (Demo Island) - Results
Q6600 @ 3.0GHz
MSI N9600GT OC
Settings: HIGH
Settings: MEDIUM
The difference in frame rates
between running the game with High settings compared to Medium settings is
considerable. The difference at 1280x1024 resolution was a 45% reduction in FPS
running with High settings as opposed to Medium settings.
CRYSIS (Demo Island) - Results
Q6600 @ 3.0GHz
MSI N9600GT OC
Settings: HIGH
Settings: MEDIUM
The
spread in FPS difference stayed consistent even with the GPU and Memory clocks
bumped up a bit. Still a solid 45% drop in frame rates going from Medium to High
in-game settings for the 1280x1024 resolution.
CRYSIS (Demo Island) - Results
Q6600 @ 3.0GHz
MSI N9600GT OC
Settings: HIGH
Settings: MEDIUM
Differential scaling remained constant between the in-game settings no matter
the overclock. However, with the 775/1060/2100 I did experience a 10 FPS
increase in performance at 1280x1024 going from 60 to 70 FPS. Not quiet as good at 1680x1050
but climbing up to almost 12 FPS more when running at 1920x1200. Crysis will
play smooth and responsive with a 60 FPS-capable card like the N9600GT OC.
CALL OF DUTY 4: Modern Warfare
The game was benchmarked using
FRAPS in the opening cut-scene for each resolution used. In-game settings are
identified below.
Call Of Duty 4 In-Game Settings
Call Of Duty 4 - Results
Q6600 @ 3.0GHz
MSI N9600GT OC
This
game plays well throughout all the resolutions with the N9600GT OC.
CONCLUSION
MSI has packaged the N9600GT T2D512 OC in a sleek
good-looking semi-transparent red cover. Performance for a 9600 GT is good with
MSI's overclocked settings but I was surprised to find the amount of additional
headroom for overclocking. While it should be noted that MSI set the factory
overclocks for this card for durability and product life based on their tests, I
just cannot quit playing around with the clocks. Overclocking the GPU and memory
has become pretty straight-forward but now add the streaming processor and you
have three settings to juggle to find the 'sweet spot.' With this card it is
entertaining, or should I say a lot of fun.
The cooling setup for the card is excellent with a low
noise fan and a dual heatpipe-assisted heatsink all in a sleek, graceful package
for a two-slot design video card. The price/performance ratio for this card is going to be
tough to beat. Add an additional N9600GT OC in a SLI setup and the performance
should be exceptional.
I have no problem giving the N9600GT T2D512 OC the
NVNEWS 'Grand Slam' award simply for just 'going one better.'
