Nvidia Corp., the largest supplier of discrete graphics processors, this week quietly added description of its new graphics card called GeForce 9600 GSO to its web-site. The new graphics board is aimed at the performance mainstream market and may offer a bit higher performance compared to previously unveiled GeForce 9600 GT thanks to more powerful graphics processor onboard.

Nvidia GeForce 9600 GSO graphics card is based on code-named G92 graphics processing unit (GPU) that operates at 550MHz and sports reduced amount of execution units as well as cut-down memory bus. The new model features 96 unified shader processors at 1375MHz, 48 texturing units, 12 render back ends and 192-bit memory bus. Nvidia recommends its partners to install 384MB of 1600MHz GDDR3 memory on the GeForce 9600 GSO-branded graphics cards. Specifications of the GeForce 9600 GSO are exactly the same as specifications of the GeForce 8800 GS, therefore, the novelty should be considered as rebranding of a previous-generation product, not a new design.

Like all the latest graphics cards from Nvidia, the GeForce 9600 GSO features PureVideo HD high-definition video decoding and post-processing engine as well as sports DirectX 10.0 capabilities.

Even though the GeForce 9600 GSO graphics card features GPU with higher computing performance thanks to 96 unified shader processors, whereas the GeForce 9600 GT only has 64 of them, its memory bandwidth is considerably lower than that of the GT model due to cut-down memory bus (38.4GB/s vs. 57.6GB/s).

Pricing of the new graphics card is unclear, although Nvidia claims that the model 9600 GSO offers “amazing graphics performance within your reach”.