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Leadtek GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB Extreme Video Card
 
Author:
Editor:
Sponsor:
Published:
Max Slowik
Kurtis
Leadtek
Sep. 5, 2008
Video Quality, Power Usage & Noise, and Overclocking


HQV
Standard Definition
PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 512MB
PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8
Leadtek GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB Extreme
Chaintech GeForce 9600 GT 512MB
130
128
128
128
0
Score (130 = highest)
149.5
 
 

HQV
High Definition
PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 512MB
PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8
Leadtek GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB Extreme
Chaintech GeForce 9600 GT 512MB
100
100
95
95
0
Score (100 = highest)
115
 
 

Video playback is the first failing, although it's not major. Like other video cards of its generation, the 9600 GSO has a hard time with noise reduction. It's good, but short of perfect. This is true in both SD and HD playback, and at the very least, the GSO is no worse than the GT.


Power Consumption
(Show All Graphs)
Idle Load
PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 512MB
Chaintech GeForce 9600 GT 512MB
Leadtek GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB Extreme
PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8
39
39
45
67
0
Watts (lower is better)
119.6
 
 
Idle Load
Chaintech GeForce 9600 GT 512MB
Leadtek GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB Extreme
PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 512MB
PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8
67
69
95
104
0
Watts (lower is better)
119.6
 
 

But it's not an efficient card. Although it's the cheapest of the near-$100 cards, it's the most power-hungry. Sure, it's splitting hairs, but it consumes the most at idle as well as the most at load. It's not a huge amount in the end--good news for quiet enthusiasts.

There's no electronic noise from this card, most likely because of some non-reference power hardware. I think the fan's a win. It's default speed of 50% never spun faster at any circumstances, and cooled the card fine even turned down as to be inaudible. It seemed to improve temperatures up to about 70, 75%, where the extra speed increased the noise without decreasing the temps. You could run it either way, silently or locking in an even greater overclock.


Overclocking
(Show All Graphs)
GPU Memory
Overclocked
Stock
661
600
0
MHz (higher is better)
1207.5
 
 
GPU Memory
Overclocked
Stock
1050
900
0
MHz (higher is better)
1207.5
 
 

A little more than a ten percent boost is good. If there were any gaps between this card and the others, that should close it.

 
<< Previous
Page 4 of 5
Next >>
Page 1: Introduction, First Impressions, Specifications & Test Setup
Page 2: DirectX 10 Titles
Page 3: DX9, OpenGL, and Synthetics
Page 4: Video, Power, and Overclocking
Page 5: Conclusion


1 User Comment
1 - Posted by Vasily Favoroff on September 5, 2008 - 2:56 pm

Got myself a 8800 GS card for 75$ with free shipping. Really can't complain about the performance at that price.

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