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- Date:
- Monday , March 03, 2008
- Author:
- Matthew Krysiak
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic
Palit’s new GeForce 9600 GT Sonic overclocked video card has a unique design and cooling solution with enough output ports to satisfy any HTPC user. We evaluate gameplay in CoD 4, Crysis, and UT3 alongside a GeForce 8800 GT and a Radeon HD 3870.
Introduction
Many enthusiasts have probably never heard of Palit, but they are a Hong Kong based company that was started 1988. They have their video card roots back all the way to NVIDIA FX and ATI 9X00 series. And not only does it manufacture both NVIDIA and ATI video cards but also Intel and AMD socket motherboards.
Our first evaluation of a Palit video card was almost two months ago with the Palit GeForce 8800 GT Super+1GB video card. Palit is gaining a reputation for providing unique custom designs pushing the boundaries of video card specifications, not afraid to break out of the reference design mold.
For this evaluation, we're taking look at one of their latest video cards: The Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic.
Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic
On February 21st, 2008 we evaluated NVIDIA’s new GeForce 9600 GT. The GeForce 9600 GT reference design specifies a GPU frequency of 650 MHz, a shader frequency of 1.625 GHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 at 1.8 GHz on a 256-bit memory bus.
Palit has taken the reference design a step further with their GeForce 9600 GT Sonic and raised the GPU frequency to 700 MHz, the shader frequency to 1.75 GHz, and 512MB of GDDR3 at 2 GHz on a 256-bit memory bus. Besides the factory overclock they have done three more things to make this card unique; first they improved the power circuitry in their design by going from a 2 phase power rectifier to a 3 phase power rectifier. This improves the voltage conditioning ability of the card. Then they also added their own dual slot solution heatsink to the card for added cooling ability. Finally, they added a HDMI port, a DisplayPort, and an Optical SPIDF (for HDMI audio) to go with the two standard DVI ports. They then finished by wrapping it up in a unique orange color and stamped on an MSRP of $219.
The Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic comes in an eye catching highly reflective green box with a cyborg frog on the front. As if that weren’t unusual enough finally we have found a company that has put not only the core frequency but also the memory frequency right on the front of the box. Imagine that, a company that actually allows you to make an informed decision by placing key information on the front of the box; I think the world might be coming to an end.
Back on topic, underneath the frequency they also placed the 512MB / 256-bit / GDDR3 and the Dual Dual-link DVI / HDMI / DisplayPort information. For those wondering, DisplayPort is a license-free royalty-free digit display interface standard that was developed by VESA. One advantage of the display port is improved data bandwidth compared to DVI. There is also a sticker on the left bottom corner of the box noting that Tomb Raider Anniversary is included.
Above in the first picture we see the Palit’s unique orange card shroud and their cyborg frog on it. Continuing on to the next picture we see the white audio connector next to the left heat pipe on the side of the card. Using the supplied cable connected to your audio card will allow you to output the audio from the GeForce 9600 GT Sonic. In the picture after that we get a good look at all the output ports. Starting on the top left is the HDMI, the DisplayPort, parallel DVI ports, and finally an optical SPIDF. You will also note in the picture that there is an air vent in the PCI cover. Though the hot air is not ducted out so it is questionable how much it helps. In the last picture we can see that the card only uses one 6-pin connector for power.
In the above pictures we get to see what the Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic looks like with its orange plastic cover removed. We can now see Palit’s dual heat pipe aluminum finned copper based heatsink. The second picture shows the power circuitry and another angle of the heatsink. The final picture gives us a view from the side of the card.
The first two pictures show the back of the video card and the card’s labels; nothing special here. The third picture shows the accessories included with the card. These include a quick installation guide, Tomb Raider Anniversary, a driver CD, a SPIDF cable, an internal audio connector, PCIe to Molex adapter, and a DVI to D-Sub adaptor.
Focus
Today we are going to compare the similarly priced NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT and ATI Radeon HD 3870 to the Palit GeForce 9600 GT Sonic. We will see how each card compares in Crysis, CoD 4, and UT3. Then we will see just how far we can overclock Palit’s card and end with a temperature showdown between the 8800 GT and the 9600 GT.