Please help me identify what this GPU is

[AdamantForce]

Hello, I would like to say thank you in advance to anyone who offers any assistance ahead of time. Ok to clear things up, the card in question is not being used by me anymore. I planned on giving it to a (non gaming) friend of mine to replace the on board unit.

THe card is a familiar one. Its gotten few good reviews, and many horrid ones. It is a PNY Geforce 9600GT. BUT, here is the issue. It is not a 512MB, nor is it a 1GB card. The dam car reads as a 256mb card. And no, its not a turbo cache. PNY didnt make this card like that. I ran it for a good week because it was just horrid. But upon surfing the web, I saw a mans 9600 gt gpuz profile. And it really hit me, half of the card is not active. It had plenty of power, air, and my rig is not the culprit. I replaced it with a 9800GTX+OC and that ran like it was supposed to.
(kiked that out for ATI now)

Here below is a screen shot I took of the card when I had its info up.

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And this is some persons that I just saw here on this site.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/w9p8w/


And on the rear of the card, on the ID sticker (brand name/nodel, ect.) Where it would say 512MB it has been black lined. Cant tell if its a marker or a printer that struck it out.
I found nothing on PNY making this card in this setup. Or any other company making this setup. If there is a way to , remedy this, I would love to know. I never consider anything PC related to be junk, things can always help out the lesser privileged. If its broken and that is it, OK Im cool with that, if I can mod something, or I can whatever, I just would like some resolve. LOL

Any input/advise, will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you ,
AdamantForce

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Welcome to the forums!

It could be that it's an OEM card, originally the 512MB version, but with either defective RAM chips that have been disabled or a model you can't buy in retail. If your friend isn't gaming then it won't make one tiny bit of difference. If you really want to know more about the RAM, post some pictures of the card (back and front) and we'll be able to see what type of chips it has.

 

[AdamantForce]

It could be that it's an OEM card, originally the 512MB version, but with either defective RAM chips that have been disabled or a model you can't buy in retail. If your friend isn't gaming then it won't make one tiny bit of difference.

Thanks,
Yeah thats what I figured, it will help her watch movies with clarity that she hasnt had before and other little things. But I was hoping to have a salvage mission out of this. I also thought that about the RAM also. But I noticed the ROPs are half, as well as the shaders, and fill rates. So do you think it could be a interruption in one of the lines (Solder) on the board?

 

[Nemesis881]

Was it a 512mb card when you first got it?
A lot of the third party Nvidia card makers will take out memory or lower the memory bus to cut costs. The only real "reference" limitations are the clock speeds.

Case in point...my Zotac 9800gt is 128-bit...Quite literally the only one in existence that I am aware of..emailed them when I found that out and I basically got the response above^.
Needless to say I will NEVER buy a Zotac product ever again. Not only was my card advertised as a 256-bit card, I got a $20 rebate when I ordered it....Never saw that $20 from them. :shadedshu

/end rant.

I'm pretty sure there is some kind of option in Windows or the Nvidia control panel that can allocate a certain amount of your system RAM as VRAM. Not as fast, but at least you will have more video memory if you need it.

 

[AdamantForce]

Was it a 512mb card when you first got it?
A lot of the third party Nvidia card makers will take out memory or lower the memory bus to cut costs. The only real "reference" limitations are the clock speeds.

Case in point...my Zotac 9800gt is 128-bit...Quite literally the only one in existence that I am aware of..emailed them when I found that out and I basically got the response above^.
Needless to say I will NEVER buy a Zotac product ever again. Not only was my card advertised as a 256-bit card, I got a $20 rebate when I ordered it....Never saw that $20 from them. :shadedshu

/end rant.

I'm pretty sure there is some kind of option in Windows or the Nvidia control panel that can allocate a certain amount of your system RAM as VRAM. Not as fast, but at least you will have more video memory if you need it.

Hello,
And thanks for the reply. And also, WOW! You too, another random "anomalous" card version. I know of Zotac, I found out about them when i googled 256MB 9600gt. They use something called TC. So it can be 256 or 512mb. And you know what man, I got that card used for $20 off of craigslist. So it was a roll of the dice. (although as Im typing this, Im on yet another cragislist come up GPU ) The card has the complete makings of a 512MB card, like I mentioned the rear sticker rear before being crossed out, 512mb. But the thing is, who would take out memory? I have removed the cover and heat-sink in the past to re do the thermal paste to try to keep it running cool. And I remember seeing all of the black ram chips on the board. I do not recall any to be missing.

I tell you what Im going to go pick it up right now. And take some shots of it. And figure out how to get them loaded up here so you can see it.
Thanks again,
AdamantForce (another metalist )

 

[AdamantForce]

Update,
It is shameful I know, but I do not have a card reader for my Digi cam. It was stolen. So Im trying to find a buddy with a reader that will read my card to upload some pictures of the card exposed. The only thing I noticed on my card was that there were about 3 spots on the cards "soard" where something wasnt added,(dont know the proper names) One of the black chips with 3 connections. 2 in back 1 in front. But I doubt that is the culprit. And also, I have a white plastic fan inside of the card? It cant be stock. The angles on this "impeller" are garbage.

You will just have to see it.

I will re post soon,
AdamantForce

"Nvidia GeForce it to work properly"

 

[newtekie1]

Was it a 512mb card when you first got it?
A lot of the third party Nvidia card makers will take out memory or lower the memory bus to cut costs. The only real "reference" limitations are the clock speeds.

Case in point...my Zotac 9800gt is 128-bit...Quite literally the only one in existence that I am aware of..emailed them when I found that out and I basically got the response above^.
Needless to say I will NEVER buy a Zotac product ever again. Not only was my card advertised as a 256-bit card, I got a $20 rebate when I ordered it....Never saw that $20 from them. :shadedshu

/end rant.

I'm pretty sure there is some kind of option in Windows or the Nvidia control panel that can allocate a certain amount of your system RAM as VRAM. Not as fast, but at least you will have more video memory if you need it.

When the card runs out of VRAM it will automatically start using system RAM, in a sort of paging style.

As for the out of spec cards, yeah that gets pretty common once the next generation hits or is about to hit, the manufacturers start to cut all types of corners to lower costs to push cards off the shelves as fast as possible so they aren't stuck with useless GPUs. In your case, they removed half the RAM chips to cut costs. XFX liked to do that too, I think they have a 9800GT with a 128-bit bus as well.

As for the OP's 9600GT, my guess is at some point this card was sent into PNY as bad with bad memory. So PNY disabled half the memory, dropping the bus down to 128-bit in the process, to isolate the bad memory module and make the card function again. Then they resold it as a refurbished card.

 

[AdamantForce]

When the card runs out of VRAM it will automatically start using system RAM, in a sort of paging style.

As for the out of spec cards, yeah that gets pretty common once the next generation hits or is about to hit, the manufacturers start to cut all types of corners to lower costs to push cards off the shelves as fast as possible so they aren't stuck with useless GPUs. In your case, they removed half the RAM chips to cut costs. XFX liked to do that too, I think they have a 9800GT with a 128-bit bus as well.

As for the OP's 9600GT, my guess is at some point this card was sent into Zotac as bad with bad memory. So Zotac disabled half the memory, dropping the bus down to 128-bit in the process, to isolate the bad memory module and make the card function again. Then they resold it as a refurbished card.

I had a bad feeling about the killing of half of the RAM. The sticker on the back that says 512 struck out. I can see all of the chips on the board, minus either a location for installing optional stuff or a place of break off where the card might have snapped off a contact or something. Im going down stairs to take some photos of it right now.


And thanks for the reply,

 

[AdamantForce]

WOW guys Im so sorry for the delay. I caught a Sirefef and it F@*$'d my PC up. I ended up doing a temp install so I could resume life as normal. But I have some pics of the GPU I was talking about. I will post them. And my apologies for the horrid delay.

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