A 14-Way Comparison Of NVIDIA vs. Nouveau Drivers

GeForce 9500GT: The GeForce 9 series was introduced in early 2008 with only modest improvements over the GeForce 8 series. The support level of the GeForce 9 series by the NVIDIA Linux and Nouveau drivers is generally similar to that of the GeForce 8 series, due to not many architectural differences. The GeForce 9500GT is built upon the G96a core and runs at 550MHz. The Sparkle GeForce 9500GT used for testing had 1GB of DDR2 video memory running at 800MHz. The heatsink on the Sparkle 9500GT is actively cooled but is quite small.

GeForce 9800GT: The GeForce 8800GT was launched in the summer of 2008 with the G92a core. The 8800GT is running at 600MHz with 1800MHz GDDR3 video memory. The MSI 9800GT that was used has 512MB of GDDR3 memory with a modestly sized active heatsink. An external 6-pin PCI-E power connector is also required for this GPU.

GeForce 9800GTX: The GeForce 9800GTX was a very powerful but power-hungry graphics card for its time three years ago. This model is built on the G92 core with a 675MHz core clock and 2200MHz memory clock for its 512MB of GDDR3 video memory. The cooler on the eVGA GeForce 9800GTX covers the entire PCB, is dual-slot, and quite powerful. Two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors are required to feed enough electricity to this high-end GeForce 9 series GPU.