NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT Mainstream GPU

Name: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT Mainstream GPU - Page 5
Brand: NVIDIA

by Marco Chiappetta — Monday, July 28, 2008, 09:00 AM EDT

NVIDIA Accelerates the Search For a Cure

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

Synthetic DirectX Gaming

3DMark Vantage

The latest version of Futuremark's synthetic 3D gaming benchmark, 3DMark Vantage, is specifically bound to Windows Vista-based systems because it uses some advanced visual technologies that are only available with DirectX 10, which y isn't available on previous versions of Windows. 3DMark Vantage isn't simply a port of 3DMark06 to DirectX 10 though. With this latest version of the benchmark, Futuremark has incorporated two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, in addition to support for the latest PC hardware. We tested the graphics cards here with 3DMark Vantage's Performance preset option, which uses a resolution of 1280x1024, with no anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering.

The 3DMark Vantage overall scores here are skewed by NVIDIA's PhysX implementation, which affects one of the CPU benchmark, and oddly couldn't be disabled on our test rig. No matter, however, as the individual GPU test results are next--and they follow the exact same performance trend anyway.

These results essentially mirror what we saw with 3DMark06. The new GeForce 9500 GT is markedly faster than a Radeon HD 3650 and is almost able to catch the GeForce 8600 GTS. The more powerful card, which are only slightly more expensive, however, put up much better scores.

Tags: Nvidia, GeForce, GPU, Stream, mainstream, force, GT, EA, AI, id, AM

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com