Forsa 9600 GSO – for thrifty overclockers
Efficiency of the cooling system and overclocking
We'll be testing the efficiency of the cooling system of Forsa 9600 GSO using the Firefly Forest test from the 3DMark 06 suite. The test conditions: the resolution 1600x1200, 4-X FSAA, and 16-X AF. After nine runs of the test we produced the following results:
The new product warmed up to merely 50 degrees, however, there aren't many reasons to be delighted about that. The so good results have been attained at the expense of users' eyes who will have to listen to the noise coming from the onboard fan running without adjustment of the RPMs.
As regards the overclocking, the new product has proved to be on par. From the nominal 555/1350 MHz for the graphic processor and 1600 MHz for the video memory, Forsa 9600 GSO overclocked to 684/1728 and 2304 MHz for the graphic processor and the video memory, respectively. For that, we had to install a 120-mm fan for blowing the video card - otherwise, it overheated and hung. But the result was worth it, so we decided to test the new product in the overclocking mode. At the same time, if we treat 9600 GSO as a slowed-down version of GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS 512, or GeForce 9800 GTX, then overclocking is simply a must for it. We'd like to draw your attention to the discrepancy of real clock speeds at which the video card runs, those "hardcoded" into its BIOS. That is related to the inner specifics of the GPU, because of which its clock speeds are adjustable in a certain increment. Therefore, during the video card's operation the values of clock speeds which are closest to those hardcoded into the BIOS are set.
Benchmarking and conclusions
We'll be running today's tests with the following configuration:
| Test configuration |
| CPU |
Intel Core 2 Quad X6850 3.0 GHz |
| Motherboard |
ASUS P5E3 (Intel X38) |
| RAM |
Corsair Dominator DDR3 2 x 2 GB 1333 MHz 6-6-6-18 1T |
| Operating system |
Windows XP+SP2+DirectX 9.0c / Windows Vista for DX10 tests |
| Power supply unit |
HIPER 880 W |
As contenders to Forsa 9600 GS0, we'll be using GeForce 9600GT and GeForce 8800GT. The former is closer to it in class, while the level of speed of the latter can be attained through overclocking. For all the three video cards, we used ForceWare 175.16 drivers. Following the tradition, we are examining the test results with 3DMark test suites.
At 3DMark tests, the overclocked video card Forsa 9600 GSO performs on par with GeForce 8800GT, and yields to GeForce 9600GT when not overclocked. Such results are quite predictable, because GeForce 9600 GSO, judging by the index, should be weaker than GeForce 9600 GT. Overclocking allows it to make a leap to the level of GeForce 8800GT, however, to compensate for the fewer number of active functional units in the graphic chip and the narrower memory bus, we had to raise the clock speeds substantially.
Let's move on to gaming tests which we'll be running with 16x AF enabled with the FSAA disabled.
At Call of Duty 4, the results for the overclocked Forsa 9600 GSO are almost close to those for GeForce 8800GT, but without overclocking the new product becomes an outsider.
At Crysis, the results for overclocked Forsa 9600 GSO almost go on par with those for GeForce 8800GT, but without overclocking the new product again takes the last place.
At Need for Pro Street Racing, the overclocked new product was able to leave GeForce 8800GT behind, which well demonstrates its capabilities.
At Call of Juarez, we see the same pattern as it is in the previous games. Overclocking makes 9600 GSO a true competitor to GeForce 8800GT, but without overclocking, in the nominal mode, 9600 GSO turns out to be an outsides among these three video cards.
At Need for Speed Carbon the situation preserves.
At Prey, the situation is repeating. By the way, Prey is demanding at the memory bandwidth. If we proceed from that, we can make a conclusion regarding the compensation of the fewer memory bus width using overclocking.
At Call of Juarez under Windows Vista, the overclocked new product anyway yields to GeForce 8800GT - the shortage of functional units makes itself felt. However, the lag is not substantial, and the gain from overclocking turned out to be within 32% to 37%.
At Crysis, overclocked Forsa 9600 GSO again takes the second place, yielding to GeForce 8800 GT, and without overclocking - yields to GeForce 9600 GT, as it should be as per its rank.
Final Words
There aren't any critical shortcomings in Forsa 9600 GSO, except the overly noise of its cooling system. The interior of the new product is noble - the G92 is a framework for powerful video cards like GeForce 8800GT or GeForce 8800GTS 512. Of course, in our case it has undergone some changes, namely, part of the functional blocks have been disabled with the memory bus width reduced, which we partly compensated for through overclocking. The results proved to be quite good: the video card which costs less than GeForce 9600GT was able to catch up with the more expensive GeForce 8800GT. On the other hand, we should make a reservation regarding intense cooling that we had to make use of in order to produce such impressive results, as well as regarding the video memory capacity which may be may be in shortage once FSAA is enabled. Therefore, you will have to make a certain compromise anyway On the whole, the video card has shown itself not bad indeed, and in the hands of the overclocker it is able revealing all its worth.
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