Forsa 9600 GSO – for thrifty overclockers
Making use of its success in the field of video cards, in particular, G92 graphic processor, NVIDIA has created another video card on its base. The most interesting is in that the new product is fully identical to the formerly presented GeForce 8800GS.
Both the video cards are based on G92 with 96 active universal processors, with both offering 384 MB of video memory and the 192-bit bus. The frequencies of the video cards are also identical: 550/1375 MHz for the graphic processor, and 1600 "true" MHz for the video memory. In fact, NVIDIA took the "old" GeForce 8800GS and renamed it to GeForce 9600 GSO. For these, the BIOS with new ID were written, with drives able "understanding" this ID released. So, what has NVIDIA re-made the old video card and released it as new? One of the reasons for such a move may be the great number of manufactured G92 chips, which ought to be sold before the emergence of the next family of video cards based on G92b chips which should differ from G92 by their new 55-nm process technology. Perhaps, the sales of GeForce 8800GS have not attained the required level, and NVIDIA wants to fix that through a new name. At the performance level, GeForce 8800GS is closer to GeForce 9600GT rather than to the other brethren in the 8800 family. We may go on guessing for a long time, but the fact is this: NVIDIA has presented a new video card, and our task is to examine it.
Forsa is among those manufacturers who use the same packaging for a whole series of their products. Therefore, Forsa has used the same package box for GeForce 9600GT.
We can find out about the model of the video card only from the label or on removing the video card itself.
The package bundle includes:
- DVI -> D-Sub adapter;
- S-video > Component out + S-video splitter;
- S-Video cable;
- drivers CD;
It is easy to see that Forsa has used its own PCB design for the manufacture of GeForce 9600 GSO. Apart from that, the developers have used a stiffening plate in the form of a black aluminum plate fastened from the side of the video card. This should increase the mechanical strength of the board and prevent it from fracture while sagging.
The trait of the design is about two power connectors, 6-pin for video cards and the "regular" 4-pin. They don't have to be plugged in simultaneously because Forsa has relieved itself from the need to add a power supply adapter into the package bundle of the video card, and saved users from trouble in case it is lost.
On the reverse side of the video card, there aren't any components which would be of interest to us, except the identification sticker with the specifications of the video card.
Under the cooling system on the front side of the video card, there is the graphic processor G92 and six video memory chips which make up the 384 MB capacity.
The graphic chip is marked as "G92-150".
The memory chips are made by Samsung and offer 1.0 ns access time, which is equivalent to the effective clock speed 2000 MHz. In fact, the memory chips run at a lower frequency – 1600 MHz DDR. As we can see, there is quite a substantial margin for overclocking.
The radiator of the cooling system has a copper insert whose heat is distributed over the aluminum plates using two heat pipes made of copper. The structure is cooled with a thin 80-mm fan.
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