As always with Zotac, they were one of the first to come up with a sample of the hotly anticipated Nvidia 9500 GT based videocard, and not just a run-of-the-mill model; they had an AMP! edition ready for us to torture and feed into our test bench. We take a look at the budget card based on the latest Nvidia 9000 series architecture.

The 9500 GT is intended to join the ranks of what I like to call the “super sellers” of the videocard industry – namely the product that the majority (like 80 to 90%) of computer users will be buying. Actually, this is not exactly accurate, as the true majority of “videocards” sold are actually on-board solutions. More precise would be to say super sellers in the discrete video solution portion of the market. Examples include the previous generation 8600 GT, the 7600 GS, and the 6200 Nvidia chipsets.

                                             Budget this may be, yet the Zotac 9500 GT livens things up with a bit of color.

All these chipsets had one thing in common – they were the go-to cards when you wanted to game but didn’t have much cash to spend on a card. They range in price from a minimum of $60 to $100. And today’s videocard is best introduced at this point,; the 9500 GT is estimated to average at $100 or so, immediately fulfilling one of the prime requirements of this market segment. Other than this however, this latest iteration of “the budget gamer’s card” cannot be more far removed from its predecessors – performance is surprisingly good, taken in its context and price range.

                                             A total of four memory chips - 4 at the rear and four more under the heatsink - populate this budget card.

Let’s start with the basics: architecture and features. The 9500 GT is based on the G92 chip instead of the latest G200 – expected from a starting videocard. Regardless the G92 chip is no laggard; with features like 32 Shaders running at 1400MHz, core clock speed of 550 MHz (for reference – the AMP! Edition runs at 650MHz). All this runs on a 65nm process, although industry rumor is that a 55nm process-based 9500 GT isn’t far from release. 900MHz (dual pumped to 1800MHz) memory clocks for the 512MB of GDDR3 for cache, combined with a total of 314 million transistors, result in a technologically advanced marvel comparable to the best cards you could buy a mere decade ago, at a much higher price. A 128-bit memory interface keeps things connected and humming along nicely.

                                             Here's another huge advance on the state of "budget" cards - Dual DVI with HDCP support (for a single output).

Zotac and Nvidia has seen fit to stuff this card with a multitude of technologies as well; support for PCI-E 2.0, Open GL 2.1, Shader Model 4.0, PureVideo HD tech (which was not included in the previous generation entry model) are all big-name technologies normally only found in the mid to high end videocards. Compatibility with the latest games and a smooth HD viewing experience is now within the reach of a $100 (P4400) videocard – an amazing fact if you think about it.

                                             A single SLI golden finger means dual 9500 GT goodness. Hybrid SLI is also supported.

Compatibility is one thing, but just how fast does this card perform these so-called “cutting-edge” games? It doesn’t mean squat that a card can make use of the latest scripts in Shader 4.0 and such if the games run at single-digit speeds.  Crysis testing was pretty much a wash-out, as expected, minimum to low-mid settings, with AA and AF turned off produced playable numbers (30-40), but anything above that resulted in a slide show. 3DMark numbers gave some surprise – its numbers were very similar to the last generation 8600 GTS videocard, a card that is deemed a step above in the videocard ranking based on price and its feature set as contrasted against other videocards of the same generation.

                                             The PCI-E slot is 2.0 compatible - which doesn't really mean much at this budget and throughput.

It’s important to note that the 8600 GTS during its time retailed for around $180 to $250, much, much higher than the 9500 GT. Comparing them yields a maintenance of core, shader, and memory clock speeds, plus a lot of new technology as well. Memory amount at 512MB is also double that of the 8600 GTS. With these specs, passable performance with enough tweaking, Hybrid technology compatibility (we will soon be testing the 9500 GT with a 750a based motherboard for the hybrid SLI technology – watch out for it!) SLI compatibility (up to two 9500 GTs) and the aforementioned starting price, the 9500 GT in Zotac’s AMP! overclocked guise is set to set the sales charts on fire, and at the same time give the common gamer with an insatiable appetite for games but only reasonable amounts of money a very healthy and affordable option. Watch out for our print edition for more benchmark numbers and details!

                                              Surprising number of additions given the price point - DVI to HDMI included. Not shown is the driver CD - it was in our test bench getting installed at the time.