XFX 9600 GT XXX
The XFX 9600 GT XXX Edition card continues to use the reference cooler design but has beefed up the clock rates anyway giving its card a speed increase while maintaining the single slot that reference cards benefit from.
Anyone that has seen the GeForce 9600 GT before will recognize this design as pretty standard. XFX has spiced it up a bit by making the PCB black, adding a black bar along the top for PCB strength and including bright green DVI connections.
The back of the card again shows that only the four screws directly around the GPU are required for heatsink retention.
Here you can see the bright green DVI outputs that add a bit edge to the somewhat boring side of graphics cards that are both dual-link. There is also a TV output that supports HDTV output with an included dongle.
And yes, this is the only single slot design 9600 GT in our roundup!
And yes, this is the only single slot design 9600 GT in our roundup!
Yep, the power connector is still in the same place and is still required for operation.
XFX actually has a much better included bundle of accessories with their XXX Edition card. Not only do you get a full copy of Call of Duty 4 (which if you don’t already own is a big plus!) but the full gamut of connectors and cables: power adapter, two DVI-to-VGA adapters, single DVI-to-HDMI adapter, SPDIF audio cable, component HD dongle and as an added bonus, an S-Video cable for TV output.
XFX has always been one to push the limits of NVIDIA’s GPUs and with the new 9600 GT XXX Edition they are doing that once again. The core clock speed of 740 MHz, shader speed of 1850 MHz and memory clock of 1000 MHz make it the fastest 9600 GT card we have seen on our testing benches. With these clock rates you are getting a 14% boost in core and shader speed and a 10% boost in memory speed. How that compares to the other two cards in our roundup will be interesting to note.
