Worthy low power upgrade to Nvidia 9600 GT?

geepondy

Member
Jan 19, 2007
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Is there a worthy video card upgrade to my Nvidia 9600 GT that won't require a new power supply then my existing Earthwatts 430W or break the bank ($150 tops, closer to $100 better)? I'm a pretty light gamer these days but am interested in the upcoming Duke Nukem Forever and wonder if the 9600 GT can cut it without turning off all the eye candy. Plus is even the 9600 GT Direct X 11 or does it need to be? Other system specs is Phenom II 945, 4 G memory and windows 7. I do have an Intel SSD as my primary drive.
 

Red Hawk

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2011
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Something like a Radeon HD 5770, Radeon HD 6850, Geforce GTS 450 or Geforce GTX 550 Ti would do nicely. All those consume slightly more power than the 9600 GT, so if you want to be absolutely sure (and save a few bucks) you can get something a step lower like the Radeon HD 6670 or the Geforce GT 440. Both are worth the upgrade over the 9600 GT.
 

Red Hawk

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2011
3,266
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The 9600 GT is a bit worse than a 8800 GTS. Also, no, the 9600 GT is not DirectX 11, it's DirectX 10. But it doesn't need to be, since DNF is still back at DirectX 9.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
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While the GTX 460 is great, it's not exactly low power.

OP, if power consumption is your main concern, stick with AMD. They have better performance-per-watt than nVidia at this point.