GeForce 9600GT is slated for February 21, but already the first review is up. TweakTown has published a 20-page article where they compare it to both GeForce 8800GT and Radeon HD 3870. Initially, it was said that GeForce 9600GT would replace the short-lived GeForce 8800GS and that it would perform similarly. That’s not true. It’s faster. It whips Radeon HD 3870 in most benchmarks and is on par with 8800GT in more than a few, at “lower” resolutions (1280×1024).
At higher resolutions, Radeon HD 3870 and GeForce 9600GT are pretty much even. NVIDIA’s new baby is expected to cost $169-189, which is cheaper than Radeon HD 3870, and more in line with Radeon HD 3850. The card consumes about as much as Radeon HD 3870 and GeForce 8800GT during load, but when idle it lands somewhere in between. The only real drawback, is the cooler. It’s loud and not very impressive (haven’t we said this before about NVIDIA’s coolers?)
In the end, NVIDIA seems to have a winner with the 9600GT.
