Introduction

This week NVIDIA launched several new products, one of them the GeForce 9500 GT. This card is the current lowest end GeForce 9 SKU. Powering the 9500 GT, the NVIDIA G96 graphics processor is introduced with these cards. It features 314 million transistors on a 65 nm process. In a future revision a 55 nm process will be used. Given that this is a low end card, the specs are not that impressive. The 9500 GT is designed to easily beat the ATI 3650 series in performance and also offer a better performance/$ ratio.

NVIDIA suggests three main GeForce 9500 GT configurations, but partners are free to adjust them as they receive demand from the market: 512 MB GDDR3, 256 MB GDDR3, 512 MB DDR2.

Galaxy has engineered their own PCB design and uses a custom dual-slot cooler with heatpipes. The clocks frequencies have also received a healthy bump.

Packaging & Contents

Galaxy's package is flashy and easily communicates the highlights to the potential buyer. But where is the product name? The closest you can find on the back of the package is "GeForce 9500 Series", while the front only shows "GeForce".



You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Product documentation + Driver CD + Extreme Tuner CD
• DVI Adapter + TV out adapter
• TV out cable

The Card

Even though the card is just a low-end card, it uses a dual-slot cooler. This allows Galaxy to keep down the noise some more while still running at low temperatures.


The card has two DVI ports, basically the most common output configuration these days. In case you need an analog VGA port you can use the included DVI adapter. When using an HDMI adapter (not included), you will also have access to HDMI+HDCP+Audio, which allows easy setup of a media PC. For the HDMI audio feature you have to connect an SPDIF cable (not included either) from your on-board audio or sound card to the input on the graphics card.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

The cooler is pretty simple but effective. A single heatpipe goes from the core around the fan blades. Some additional aluminum fins help with the heat transfer.


You may combine two GeForce 9500 GT cards to run in SLI for increased performance. Triple SLI configurations are not supported with this card. To the right of the SLI connector you can see the two pins for the SPDIF audio input for HDMI+Audio.


Even though a 6-pin PCI-Express power connector is present, it is not required for operation. The card draws all its power from the PCI-Express bus.
As I am told by Galaxy marketing, the additional power connector is just "a marketing gimmick for the Chinese market". On cards being sold outside of Asia the connector will be removed.


The GDDR3 chips are made by Samsung and have the model number K4J52324QE-BJ1A. They are rated for 1000 MHz (1.0 ns cycle time). These are the same memory chips you would find on more powerful models like the 9800 GTX+, for example.


This is NVIDIA's new G96 graphics processor. We are using revision C1 which is made in a 65nm process at TSMC using 314 million transistors. At a later date a smaller 55 nm variant will be revealed which is cheaper to make because the die size is smaller, also the heat output of such a chip would be slightly reduced.