Nvidia GeForce 9600 GSO and 9600 GT

Verdict: The GDDR3-equipped 9600 GSO is a great bargain.

As Nvidia appears to have a bad case of naming diarrhoea, and conjures up new names for old cards almost daily, we aren't sure how long the 9600 GSO will be around. To add to the pain of understanding what to buy, the GPU's specs are a confusing mix - some are superior to those of the more expensive 9600 GT, while others are inferior.

While the 9600 GT has 64 stream processors running at 1.625GHz, the 9600 GSO has 96, although they run at a slower 1.375GHz. To further confuse matters, the 9600 GT has a superior memory subsystem and talks to its 512MB of GDDR3, which runs at 900MHz (1.8GHz effective), via a 256-bit memory controller. In contrast, the 9600 GSO's 384MB of GDDR3 runs at 800MHz (1.6GHz effective) and communicates with the GPU via a 192-bit memory controller. Avoid cheap 9600 GSOs sporting DDR2 - they significantly underperform compared with the GDDR3 version.

The eclectic mix of specs makes it hard to predict the performance of the two 9600 GPUs. For example, while the 9600 GSO was swamped by Crysis Warhead, the 9600 GT was much faster, although the game still wasn't playable. At the same time, although both models coped admirably with X3: Terran Conflict and Fallout 3, neither could play Far Cry 2 smoothly, although the 9600 GT was much faster than the 9600 GSO.

In contrast, the 9600 GSO is a speed demon in Folding@home, producing an incredible 4,508ppd for very little power consumption. In contrast, due to its lower number of stream processors, the 9600 GT produces just 3,427ppd.

If you're on a tight budget then the 9600 GSO is worth considering, although we'd recommend saving up for the significantly faster 9800 GT, which is just £25 more expensive.