The 9500 and 9800 GT are here, whether you like it or not.

Interesting,
I am going to add a new category immediately. Speed wise, the ATI HD 3850 or GeForce 8800GS are much better choices.

As "decent" a card this might be, why buy a 9500GT?!?! seriously......you can now get an 8800GT for under $150.

Some people can't really spend more than $70 or so on a video card... For a gamer on a really low budget, this card seems like a good deal. From the reviews it looks to be a really nice OCer, too.

It seems like a desperate attempt by nVidia to recapture the mid-range market after putting such a strong focus on the enthusiast for so long. The only problem is they already had a decent mid-level card (the 9600 GT) and for the price difference I'm willing to bet that most nVidia fans will chose that.

because its under 80.00. its for those who want a home video player, since its play back is rated very high.

also found a review on a 9800 gt, was only against a 4850

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1520/1/gigabyte_9800_gt_zalman_edition/index.html

Very interesting. It's good that Nvidia are making some good budget cards, but I can't really see the point of the 9800GT at the moment. I mean, it's essentially just a 'rebadged' 8800GT for ~$40AU more and for what? The right to say that you own a GeForce 9? It doesn't even have the 55nm process Nvidia first showed they can fabricate on the 9800GTX . Is this because they are trying to get rid of old 8800GT parts or the old 65nm G92 GPU?

Anyway here is some unconfirmed specs of yet-to-be-announced cards:

NVIDIA GTX 350
Core: GT300
Process: 55nm
Die size: 576mm
Memory Bus: 512bit
Memory Type/Framebuffer: GDDR5/2GB
Shader Processors: 480
Texture Units: 64
Memory Bandwidth: 216GB/sec
Core Clocks (Core/Shader/Mem): 830/2075/3360MHZ
Pixel Fill Rate: 36.3Gpixels/s
Texture Fill Rate: 84.4Gpixels/s
Source: http://en.hardspell.com/doc/showcont.asp?news_id=3764

And what does the rival have up it's sleeve? (Unconfirmed)

RV870
Core: RV870
Process: 45nm (or 40nm)?
Die size: 140mm2
Memory Bus: 256bit
Shader Processors: 960?
Other info: Native Dual-Core for X2?
Source: http://en.hardspell.com/doc/showcont.asp?news_id=3768

Naito.

So, the 9800GT is...what? An 8800GT with a 9?

Yep , the 65nm one is . The 55nm one is a die shrinked 8800 GT .

AIllyan, While some users might be able to only spend $70, I would surmise that they already spent such money less than a year ago on a 8500 or 2450 type card. Consequently, these people are then constantly spending $70-90 each year on a new "affordable" card with only a low end 128 bit memory path? Are they upgrading their CPU/motherboard every other year as well? Doesn't make much sense really. Are they going out every 6 months and spending $40 on a new "must have" game too?

@ Mach5Motorsport

Not necessarily, I know a lot of people who can really only afford to buy new computers every 5 years or so, usually a cheap Dell or HP with integrated graphics, and all they need is a basic card to get by with newer games. It might not seem like much to hardware enthusiasts, but even $70 is a lot to spend for casual users.

Anyone remember Intel a year and a half back announcing their development of discrete GFX cards? This is the market the said they would be entering (mid-range) with. All I can say is, where the hell are they?

Well..... This card can be very useful for those people who wants a multi-media PC.... Not a bad card actually

EH? useful for people wanting a multi media PC? sort of like the purpose of the ATi All in Wonder card? ;-) Really now, that seems to be the only positive to say about a sub $100 card. ":its for multi media use." which means that it's not suitable for any robust (ie challenging) applications.

...nVidia is honestly ticking me off with all this ridiculousness. Sure, I love my 9600GT. A lot. It's a GREAT CARD.

My next card will come from Team Red, though.

Illyan. sub $100 cards now come in all flavors and the 9500GT is no different. A decent DDR3 and cheaper DDR2 variant. I pity those who mistakenly get a DDR2 spec'd 9500GT as a "cheap" upgrade to replace what ever card they currently use. Not worth the money, imo. It would be better to just swallow hard and get a decent $150 card like the 8800GT which isn't a compromise and will be more relevant far longer over time.

@Mach5: Some people literally do not have $150 to spend on entertainment. In addition, a lot of the people buying this card will have a budget computer with a 300-350w PSU, which limits them to cards in this range.

I really think this is a great budget card.
-It out-performs the 8600GTS/2600XT/3650
-Great Overclocker
-Cheap price, (will only get cheaper)
-Low power consumption

I don't know which review you read. Hothardware rated the 9500GT BELOW the 8600GTS and the higher performing Radeon HD 3850 costs about the same too. I would suspect that HotHardware tested the $80 DDR3 9500GT model. The Guru3D review puts the 9500GT just ahead of the 8600TS. So its a wash. Again the DDR2 variant will be even lower performing. I also wager that most buyers looking at this card wouldn't know about overclocking anyway. If some people don't have the money for a $150 range card...Some useful advice: save some $$$$ to make the purchase. Stop buying those PS3 games and pay perviews or going to Applbees every Friday night. Otherwise, these same people are lamenting every year about their "cheap" card is underperforming and trying to find another new sub $100 card solution. Hate to break the news to you, but a 300w PSU can't support the 9500GT anyway. Nvidia says a 350w minimum, which realy says 380-400w to be safe. Granted, if I was running an old 6600GT or 7600 yeah, this card would be a huge upgrade. But I would read the box carefully to get the DDR3 model. I would hope anyone thinking about this card has a CPU that runs 2ghz at least.

Say how you really feel, Mach5.

Although I entirely agree with saving pennies...I was originally going to buy a...7600GT...eeegh.

I know some people don't have more than $70 to spend, but couldn't they wait for a few months and save till they have $150? That gets you so much more.

Hey Duescro, I would get the 9500GT in a heartbeat if all I had was onboard video. Yeah far far better than on-board video.

Mach5Motorsport, i agree...

Imo I think the 9500gt is more interesting then the 9800gt, its has fast as a 8600gts but u guys remeber ready about when the volt moded the 8600gts and got up to 1000mhz, I wonder if it could do higher, but they need to lower the price to about 70$ for a ddr3, but the 9800gt is kinda boring nothing has changed about the 9800gt from the 8800gt

all in one the 9500GT is an escellent card for buget gaming i was able to play UT3 on a GF 8600 GT and e2220 CPU... so this thing should be rly nice