NVIDIA's sub-$100 GeForce 9500 GT gets introduced and reviewed

Should the GTX 280 be a bit too rich for your blood, NVIDIA's lookin' out. Introduced (and reviewed) today, the PCIe 2.0-compatible GeForce 9500 GT checks in a few bucks south of $100 depending on where you go and provides a 550MHz core clock, 1,400MHz shader clock, 32 stream processors, 800MHz memory clock, 256MB / 512MB of RAM and twin dual-link DVI ports. Assuming the specifications meet your standards, you're probably curious about performance. Based on the first reviews, it was found to be "measurably faster than the Radeon HD 3650, and pretty much on par with the GeForce 8600 GTS." For under a C-note, it's a solid buy for those okay with being a few steps behind, and HTPC builders will find the low power consumption, quiet operation and small size to be quite appealing. Check out the links below for pages upon pages of in-depth coverage.

Read - Introduction, benchmarks and review
Read - Benchmarks, images and another review

[OneLove @ Jul 29th 2008 11:17AM]

You can get 8800 GT love for under $100.

[OneLove @ Jul 29th 2008 11:20AM]

...oh wait. (forget what i said)

[OneLove @ Jul 29th 2008 11:22AM]

...no, 8800 GT love, is still better.

[Dillon @ Jul 29th 2008 11:53AM]

What is a 8800 GT 'love'? Is it a pink colored 8800 GT?

[Rick White @ Jul 29th 2008 12:30PM]

No, Dillon, it's the wonder of nature called SLI. One day your parents will tell you all about it.

[iofthestorm @ Jul 29th 2008 2:09PM]

You can get a Radeon 3850 for under $100, and it will run circles around this sad card. 8800GT will beat it, but this is far from an 8800GT.

[Neebs @ Jul 29th 2008 6:28PM]

Rick - I lol'd.

[Abuzar Baloach @ Jul 29th 2008 11:21AM]

Here you go, sub 100 9600GT


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261002

[noel @ Jul 29th 2008 12:01PM]

Even Better, 9600 for $99!

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3876579&CatId=3585

[wunch @ Jul 29th 2008 2:33PM]

The 9600 GT/GSO looks pretty cool, but I don't really think its fair to compare the discounted and rebated price of one card to the MSRP of another, unless you really need to buy a card today. If you wait a few months, the 9500GT will also be disounted and rebated, and most likely < $70.

[BigD145 @ Jul 29th 2008 3:21PM]

The 9600 is worth it.

[Karthik @ Jul 30th 2008 1:08AM]

testing

[Wwhat @ Jul 29th 2008 11:23AM]

Did you hear about nvidia's 'gaza experiment'? they took some unbiased uninformed users and gave them a notebook with a G86 chip and none of them complained about the chips failing after 10 minutes, that shows again how people get influenced by what they hear from fellow users and daft journalists and lawyers and experts and dell support hotlines instead of listening to salespeople, that are trustworthy.

[OneLove @ Jul 29th 2008 11:24AM]

Troll. Don't you have anything better to do?

[Wwhat @ Jul 29th 2008 8:36PM]

Troll? I'm amusing people with sense, and engadget staff, that's not the same as trolling, and I think bringing humour is a great way to spend your time.
It's a much better use than writing long post to support an imaginary friend called MS too I might add
I'm proud to be voted low by MS fanboys.

[azz0r @ Jul 29th 2008 11:48AM]

I got one of these over 2 months ago via a cock up by Medion.

Such a powerful card for its price range. I can run TF2 with everything full (aa, fsaa, motion blur) at 1680 and have a steady 40 - 50 fps

Its amazing how good such a cheap card can be.

[Dillon @ Jul 29th 2008 11:54AM]

"I got one of these over 2 months ago via a cock up by Medion."

Umm... what?

[Lowest Ranked @ Jul 29th 2008 12:14PM]

Yes, do tell us more about this cock up.

[Rick White @ Jul 29th 2008 12:32PM]

Apparently I need to live in a country that uses the phrase "cock up"...or just purchase more from Medion.

[azz0r @ Jul 29th 2008 1:25PM]

Basically I bought something very similar to this:

http://www.medion.de/ms/aldi/md8393/uk/flash.html

From them a long time ago. I made a topic on neowin about the gfx card as I couldn't find a price comparison to see what its real worth was, and was total it wasn't out yet.

I don't usually buy pre-made PC's, but they do some really powerful yet cheap computers. Blu-ray, 500GB, Good graphics, Quad core with a stylish LG cash for £500? Can't go wrong.

[johnzilla @ Jul 29th 2008 2:13PM]

That website has an ALDI logo on it.

In the USA, ALDI is a low-end sketchy grocery store chain. No wonder you experienced a "cock up" buying a PC at the grocery store.

[OneLove @ Jul 29th 2008 3:18PM]

maybe he likes having cock up....

[jason @ Jul 29th 2008 7:51PM]

lol ALDI? are you serious?

lol, they dont even have shelves in their store.

At least in the US, ALDI's is where you go to get the very lowest prices on groceries. They save money by making their stores not accept credit cards, having wood paneling as walls, really low lighting, not bagging your stuff for you, making you buy your own bags, just putting the stuff out in the aisle that they shipped in, and you have to put a quarter in to get a cart.

Why in the world would you buy a computer from there?

1) why would you buy a computer from ANY grocery store?
2) why would you buy it from the cheapest grocery store?

[Wwhat @ Jul 29th 2008 8:38PM]

I never had someone else bag my stuff at a supermarket, I'm not handicapped or 92 though.

[FTY @ Jul 29th 2008 10:40PM]

Jason, it's called a "discounter" for the exact reason.

The philosophy behind discounters is, for every brand product on the "shelf" there should be 3+ other no brand competitive products. They save money for no shelves, no storage (what you see is what they have on stock), and changing products from day to day, what they have in stock today, may not be available anytime soon.

I don't know how the product quality is in USA in those discounters, but here in Europe you can find some really nice products so cheap that you can't even imagine (speaking of food). Of course I wouldn't buy any hardware there, but I guess it's nothing wrong, they buy up some stock from Medion and sell it, it isn't anything of lower quality, it's just that they buy in masses and can afford to sell it cheap for that few days they have it in stock in all their stores.
And of course there's also tons of crap products, like everywhere.

All in all, I think it's fine that those stores exist, you really can save a lot on money for good or better quality food as you buy in a normal store for shit loads of money.

[eric @ Jul 29th 2008 11:54AM]

I had a geforce 2 with 64MB ram for years, it was like a super card. it out performed any new card i bought, every time no matter the new card was. The last try before it died was comparing it to a geforce 4 256MB card.
The 64MB card ran Doom 3 and Far Cry without flinching!
Eventually the fan on it quit and the card soon followed after I tried desperately to saddle on a new fan that didn't quite fit.

[broli @ Jul 29th 2008 12:02PM]

I see they have the intertubes at the retirementhous nowadays.

[TomTom2007 @ Jul 29th 2008 1:09PM]

man, you should setup a shrine or something for that geforce 2.

[iofthestorm @ Jul 29th 2008 2:07PM]

It was probably a Geforce 4 MX then, which was basically a higher clocked Geforce 2 without programmable shaders or anything.

[Matthew Hilario @ Jul 29th 2008 11:54AM]

Few steps behind? Man I JUST got a ATI Radeon HD 3650 and this performer better for cheaper? This is like the immigrant worker of GPUs.

[1234321 @ Jul 29th 2008 12:40PM]

um nevermind a 9500GT, why didn't you get the $99 Sapphire 3850 that's be out for a while now?

[quomen @ Jul 29th 2008 2:57PM]

You're still the juggernaut, BITCH!

[Shane @ Jul 29th 2008 11:55AM]

What is a TF2? Why are people so lazy?

[Shane @ Jul 29th 2008 11:58AM]

It stands for Team Fortress 2. All you had to do was pop it into Google to see what it meant.

[M @ Jul 29th 2008 11:59AM]

TF2 = Team Fortress 2.

[Lowest Ranked @ Jul 29th 2008 12:17PM]

Shane, if people are so lazy, and then you're too lazy to look up what it stands for, but then you go ahead and Google it anyways, then come back here to post to yourself that all you have to do is Google it..... who the hell are you criticizing...

[Chibi @ Jul 29th 2008 12:28PM]

It's Team Fortress 2. Perhaps you're the lazy one in not trying to find out what TF2 means.

[Rick White @ Jul 29th 2008 12:35PM]

Sigh, don't believe these liars, Shane. TF2 stands for "Transistor Functionality 2" for the second generation of this technology. Means really really good.

[OneLove @ Jul 29th 2008 3:21PM]

Tooth Fairy 2

[Matthew Hilario @ Jul 29th 2008 4:12PM]

Treet Fighter 2

[2ASquared @ Jul 29th 2008 12:33PM]

I have a 9500 GS in my asus laptop right now. It's decent.

[KG @ Jul 29th 2008 12:41PM]

Yeah but...can it play Crysis?

[Lediur @ Jul 29th 2008 2:36PM]

No. No it cannot.

[tekdroid @ Jul 29th 2008 12:38PM]

Sweet.
Nice what a bit of competition from the red team can do for prices and product choice.

[RyanTV @ Jul 29th 2008 1:05PM]

So Twin Dual Link DVI ports.... Does that mean you can drive 4 monitors with the single card?

I have 3 VGA monitors on my work computer and it is currently running off of a PCI-E video card and a PCI video card (and it doesnt work all that great).

The computer I'm using only has 1 PCI-E slot so I'm very limited to what i can use. Would love to be able to run all 3 monitors off of 1 video card (and maybe add a 4th).

[eilegz @ Jul 29th 2008 1:06PM]

well a cheap card for a new casual gamer pc. not bad but 8800 GT would be a better choice

[Pete @ Jul 29th 2008 1:39PM]

We have had 2 HP desktops for 2 weeks which had 9500 cards in them. Both were having fan issues by the end of the second day - and were not doing what we wanted them to do anyway. Replaced both with 9800GTs.

Now if you really want to benchmark one - install CUDA drivers and see how many PPD you can get in Folding@Home with one. I almost bet it has to be lower than an 8600GTS.

[gr689 @ Jul 29th 2008 5:50PM]

you can get a 8600gts 512 for 70 bucks

[carl @ Jul 29th 2008 6:57PM]

or an 8800 GS for $80.

[carl @ Jul 29th 2008 6:58PM]

Or an 8800 GS for $80. Incredible improvement for just $10.