It’s the mark of a maturing PC components market that there are now more videocard brands in than there are honest MMDA personnel. Competition is always a good thing, and the companies that jump into our local market already know that there is always a chance to make it big and sell thousands of units a month, that is, if they can find that special mix of price and performance that is so important to our penny-pinching enthusiasts. Manli , with their 9600GT videocard duo, may be hitting a sweet spot here.

                                              The two 9600GTs from Manli, one overclocked, the other stock.

The Manli 9600 GT and 9600 GT Overclock Edition both doesn’t look at all more special than other newly initiated videocards in our market – their boxes are exactly the same except for a small “Overclocked” sticker on one and the generic black-and-green of an Nvidia product, as well as the requisite impressive-looking mascot up at front. Then you start noticing things like a stickered-on “9600 GT” sticker (perhaps to save on packaging costs?), board features lifted straight from Nvidia literature, and a generally nondescript box. Ok, it’s understandable that a newcomer won’t be sporting the elaborate packaging found with some other more established brands, but there is the factor of “customer perception” that the seller must be aware of.

                                             This small, easily-missed portion declares this card's overclocked nature.

The 9600GT is no longer a new product, especially with the release of better “mid-range” products like the 9800GTX and GTX+ and the competing 4850/4870 from ATI. Then again, with Nvidia’s lowered pricing across the board in response to stiff competition, the 9600GT has never been a better buy than before, especially for the aforementioned penny pinchers.

                                             SLI capability has become the norm; dual 9600GTs will still challenge many brand new cards on the market.

It’s at this point that you’d probably notice a small “Arctic Cooling” sticker on both boxes’ front panels. This little sticker changes everything – you suddenly see that Manli has poured its resources into where it counts the most. Arctic Cooling is one of the most respected PC cooling manufacturers, and finding it on this Manli’s mid-range product is a pleasant surprise, to say the least. In conjunction with the 9600GT’s acceptable performance and great price-point, AC coolingadds appeal, and in the case of the Overclocked edition, good performance to the card.

                                             The rear of the card - dual DVI and a TV-out greets the user.

The basic building block of the 9600GT consists of a core and memory clock of 650MHz and 1625MHz, respectively (675 and 1900 for the overclocked edition). Both versions utilize 512MB of DDR3 on a 256-bit wide interface, connected to 64 stream processors (shaders) on the core. Physically, Manli’s cards looks exactly like what a 9600GT looks – single LSI golden finger, dual DVI connectors,  a TV-out, and a six pin power connector. Other than the Arctic Cooling fan of course. The fan turns the 9600GTs from Manli into dual-slot videocards and gets rid of the full-length shroud of the stock 9600GT, along with its tiny fan.

                                             Arctic Cooling fan gives a fuzz-good feeling to my inner geek. Note the enclosed shroud design.

The fan itself is of typical Arctic Cooling design, with a clip-on shroud to which a reverse-mount fan is attached to. While the central dead-spot isn’t totally removed, this problem is alleviated by the enclosed circulation encouraged by the shroud design. This is similar to Arctic Cooling’s award-winning Freezer CPU cooler line. The removable shroud facilitates easy cleaning as well. The heatsink itself is an aluminum jobbie with a lot of fins and is fully covered by the fan’s shroud, concentrating all cooling power onto the core, although the fins also route some cooling air to the capacitors and memory modules. If previous experience with Arctic Cooling is any indication, the cooling performance for this not-so-hot card should be very good, and will enable higher stable clocks.

                                             Seems like you can't find a mid range card without one of these anymore. 6-pin power connector ensures stable running.

Performance is in line with similar products that came out some months ago, seeing as there is no big deviation from the stock and overclocked settings (compared to similar products). In its way, Us receiving this mid-range 9600 GTs first from this Philippine market novice is the best introduction for the brand locally – while we do not yet know what kind of price to performance level it is prepared to offer, we do know that they concentrate on what the buyer wants and build up their products from there.

                                             The overclocked version of theManli 9600GT gives no indication other than on the box and the sticker.

No fancy packaging, and no over bearing super high-end product introducing their brand to us, just a solid mid-range product with sensible upgrades and quality builds that makes us editors here at HWM look forward to what Manli will show us when they get around to sending us their best and newest products. More pictures to follow.

                                             Encircle the difference between the two cards. Hint: there's only one significant difference.

                                             What a difference two lil' stickers make.

                                            The generous bundle includes, from left: an S-Video out cable, an RGB + S-Video in cable, Molex to 6-pin Power connector, the HDMI audio cable, and a phamplet and CD driver on top.