3 - Packaging, Bundle, SLI explained
Inno3D GeForce 9600 GT 512MB OC
So then, for roughly the price of the regular GeForce 9600 GT you can buy the OC version from Inno3D. OC obviously refers towards overclock and therefore you can expect a mild overclock as standard. Inno3D will set the core frequency of the GPU at 700 MHz for you. However, a nice side effect is a substantial increase of the clocks in the shader domain (default 1625 MHz) as they will overclock as well, and that frequency is now locked at 1700 MHz. The memory frequency has also been boosted a little to 1900 MHz (effective). Other than this you can expect a reference based graphics card with the standard (slim design) single slot cooler.
Included in the box you'll find:
- GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB OC model
- Driver CD
- HDTV block (3-way RCA component)
SVideo cable - 6-pin to Molex power cable
- manual / quick install guide
- VGA->DVI dongle (two)
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No additional software is included. You receive the hardware needed to get started & drivers, that's pretty much it. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that Inno3D will bundle GRAW2 in the package as well. As stated you will get a nice speedbump on the core frequency of the G94 graphics processor & it's memory. And as mentioned, increasing the core MHz also means an increase in the shader domain frequency and that's the sweet spot for your performance. The product comes at a suggested sales price of and will carry a 2 year warranty. Not bad at all, eh?
Achieving SLI mode
Well, just like ATi's Crossfire, NVIDIA SLI is a situation where you add a second similar generation graphics card (or in today's case GPU) to the one you already have in your PC and effectively try to double your raw rendering / gaming performance.
The idea is not new at all though ... if you are familiar with the hardware developments over the past couple of years you'll remember that 3dfx had a very familiar concept with the Voodoo 2 graphics cards series. There are multiple ways to manage two cards rendering one frame; think of Supertiling, it's a popular form of rendering. Alternate frame Rendering, each card will render a frame (even/uneven) or Split Frame rendering, simply one GPU renders the upper or the lower part of the frame. So you see there are many methods where two or more GPUs can be utilized to bring you a substantial gain in performance.
This review will show SLI performance results throughout the benchmark sessions.
