14 DAY TRIAL // According to a recent post on the Expreview website, NVIDIA has secretly equipped its GeForce 9600GT graphics cards with some new 55nm GPUs. Apparently, this took place after the Santa Clara-based graphics manufacturer rolled out its 9800GTX+ cards, which were the first to be built using the 55nm fabrication technology. There's still a lot of uncertainty surrounding these 55nm GeForce 9600GT cards, as there is absolutely no direct indication of the mentioned change.
In the pictures shown on the aforementioned site, the GeForce 9600GT is designated as G94-300-B1, while normal 65nm cards are known as G94-300-A1. That's about the only difference between the two GPUs, as the clocks remain the same for each of the two, 650MHz / 1625MHz / 900MHz. This is one of the reasons for the generated confusion and also for the fact that the card hasn't been rebranded as a "new" one.
If this turns out to be true, NVIDIA might just have a real champion to pitch against ATI's affordable HD3800 series. We?ll explain: 55nm means more room for overlocking, while it could also entail the possibility of a better price tag to go with it. In fact, the 65nm GeForce 9600GT has quite a reputation of a good overclocker, EVGA and XFX being capable of offering OCed 9600GT cards running at 740MHz with a single slot cooler. All the more reason for the 55nm GeForce 9600GT to provide better overall performance.
Currently, NVIDIA has only one official 55nm-based graphics, the GTX+ edition of the GeForce 9800 card. Rumor has it that all that is bound to change, as inside voices claim Q4 will bring the launch of a 55nm GeForce 9500GT, designed for entry-level users. If the 55nm 9600GT turns out to be real, NVIDIA will have three different 55nm-based cards in its portfolio by the end of 2008, while AMD only released its first since the launch of the HD 3000 series.