Press Release

21 February 2008

SPARKLE Announced Silent GeForce 9600 GT Graphics Card With Advanced Passive Cooling Technology
 

Taipei, Taiwan – February 21, 2008 - SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced  the SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT Passive Cooling Graphics Card,  a mainstream graphics card product which delivers totally silent DirectX 10 operations for gamers.

Based on NVIDIA’s next generation GeForce 9600 architecture, the SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT Passive Cooling Graphics Card adopts innovative unified architecture, dynamically allocates processing power to geometry, vertex, physics, or pixel shading operations, delivering up to times the gaming performance of prior generation GPUs. Built upon technologies such as NVIDIA Lumenex Engine, providing support for DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0, NVIDIA Quantum Effects technology for physics computation and GigaThread Technology for extreme processing efficiency in advanced, next generation shader programs.

With most advanced 65nm manufacture techniques and NVIDIA unified architecture, the SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT Passive Cooling Graphics Card embraces 64 stream processors, a fast 256-bit memory interface with 650MHz core speed and 1800MHz 512MB GDDR3 fast memory, offering a hyper-reactive, intensely robust gaming experience for the latest next-generation DirectX 10 games, such as Crysis, Hellgate: London, and Gears of War, as well as full support for current DirectX 9 games.

   Combining with NVIDIA PureVideo HD VP2 technology, the SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT Passive Cooling Graphics Card brings incredible HD video experience to users. Its video process unit delivers the highest-quality playback of HD DVD and Blu-ray movies on mainstream PCs and takes on all of the high definition H.264 HD video decoding, freeing the CPU to perform other tasks and significantly reducing power consumption, heat, and noise.

Ahead for next generation data transportation standard, the SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT Passive Cooling Graphics Card complies with PCI Express 2.0 standard,it can maximize the usage of 5GT/s bandwidth (twice that of first generation PCI Express) provided by PCI Express 2.0, to be full ready for future games and applications which have strict requirements on bandwidth. At the same time, the SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT Graphics Card is also compatible with with present PCI Express 1.1 motherboards with widest scope of support.

In order to bring silent working environment, the SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT Passive Cooling Graphics Card  is equipped with heat-pipe-based passive cooling system using high technology. Compared with conventional HSF, this noiseless passive cooling solution features higher throughput thanks to high efficiency heat-pipe optimized for mass heat volatilization. It has high performance thermal compound ensures optimal thermal dissipation even after years of use.

“Compared with ordinary GeForce 9600 GT products launched, the SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT Passive Cooling Graphics Card maintain the same DirectX 10 performance with 0dB working noise, we can give our mainstream customers an incredible silent product." Said Alvin Hsiao, sales manager of SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd. "At this price point, gamers are getting same performance and silent working places than ever before. The SPARKLE GeForce 9600 GT Passive Cooling Graphics Card inherits the magnificent art craft of SPARKLE Passive Cooling series products based on heat-pipe cooling technology, so mainstream gamers can enjoy gorgeous DX10 gaming experience without worrying about over heat and working noise problem."

GeForce 9600 GT Features and Benefits :

• NVIDIA® unified architecture

  Fully unified shader core dynamically allocates processing power to geometry, vertex, physics, or pixel shading operations, delivering up to 2x the gaming performance of prior generation GPUs

• Full Microsoft® DirectX® 10 support

  DirectX 10 GPU with full Shader Model 4.0 support delivers unparalleled levels of graphics realism and film-quality effects

• NVIDIA® SLI™ technology

  Delivers up to 2x the performance of a single GPU configuration for unparalleled gaming experiences by allowing two graphics cards to run in parallel. The must-have feature for performance PCI Express® graphics, SLI technology dramatically scales performance on today’s hottest games.

• PCI Express 2.0 support

  Designed to run perfectly with the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture, offering a future-proofing bridge to tomorrow’s most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications by maximizing the 5 GT/s PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth (twice that of first generation PCI Express).PCI Express 2.0 products are fully backwards compatible with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest support.

• GigaThread™ Technology

  Massively multi-threaded architecture supports thousands of independent, simultaneous threads, providing extreme processing efficiency in advanced, next generation shader programs 

• NVIDIA® Lumenex™ Engine

  Delivers stunning image quality and floating point accuracy at ultra-fast frame rates:

    16x Anti-aliasing: Lightning fast, high-quality anti-aliasing at up to 16x sample rates obliterates jagged edges

    128-bit floating point High Dynamic-Range(HDR):Twice the precision of prior generations for incredibly realistic lighting effects-now 

    with support for anti-aliasing  

• NVIDIA® Quantum Effects™ Technology

  Advanced shader processors architected for physics computation enable a new level of physics to be simulated and rendered on the GPU –all white freeing the CPU to run game engine and AI

• NVIDIA® ForceWare® Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)

  Delivers a proven record of compatibility reliability and stability with the widest range of games and applications

  ForceWare provides the best out-of-box experience and delivers continuous performance and feature updates over the life of NVIDIA GeForce® GPUs

• OpenGL® 2.1 optimizations and support

  Ensures top-notch compatibility and performance for OpenGL applications

• Dual 400MHz RAMDACs

  Blazing-fast RAMDACs support dual QXGA displays with ultra-high, ergonomic refresh rates –up to 2048x1536@85Hz.

• Dual Dual-Link DVI Support
  Able to drive industry’s largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays up to 2560x1600 and with support for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection(HDCP).

• NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology
  The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video.

•   Discrete, Programmable Video Processor
    NVIDIA PureVideo is a discrete programmable processing core in NVIDIA GPUs that

    provides superb picture quality and ultra-smooth movies with 100% offload of H.264 video

    decoding from the CPU and significantly reduced power consumption.

•    Hardware Decode Acceleration
     Provides ultra-smooth playback of H.264, VC-1, WMV and PEG-2 HD and SD movies.

•    HDCP Capable:
    Designed to meet the output protection management (HDCP) and security specifications

      of the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats,  allowing the playback of encrypted movie content

      on PCs when connected to HDCP-compliant displays.

•    Dynamic contract Enhancement:
     Provides spectacular picture clarity with frame-by-frame optimization,  

     allowing the playback of encrypted movie content on PCs when connected to HDCP-

     compliant displays.

•    Advanced Spatial-Temporal De-Interlacing
     Sharpens HD and standard definition interlaced content on progressive displays,

     delivering a crisp, clear picture that rivals high-end home-theater systems.

•    High-Quality Scaling
     Enlarges lower resolution movies and videos to HDTV resolutions, up to 1080i, while

      maintaining a clear, clean image. Also provides downscaling of videos, including high-

      definition, while preserving image detail.

•    Inverse Telecine (3:2 & 2:2 Pulldown Correction)
     Recovers original film images from films-converted-to-video (DVDs, 1080i HD content),

     providing more accurate movie playback  and superior picture quality.

•   Bad Edit Correction
     When videos are edited after they have been converted from 24 to 25 or 30 frames, the

     edits can disrupt the normal 3:2 or 2:2  pulldown cadence. PureVideo uses advanced

     processing techniques to detect poor edits, recover the original content, and display

     perfect picture detail frame after frame for smooth, natural looking video.

•    Noise Reduction :
    Improves movie image quality by removing unwanted artifacts.

•    Dual Stream Decode Acceleration :
    Hardware acceleration for HD picture-in-picture enables a complete HD movie playback experience.

•    Edge Enhancement:
    Sharpens movie images by providing higher contrast around lines and object

•    Integrated SD and HD TV Output
     Provides world-class TV-out functionality via Composite, S-Video, Component, DVI, or

    HDMI connections. Supports resolutions up to 1080p depending on connection type

    and TV capability.

About SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd.
SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd, established in 1982, is a high-end VGA card manufacturer and supplier to mainly provide NVIDIA series VGA card. With its strong R&D ability and investment in both hardware and software, Sparkle aims to provide the most price-competitive products while with best-in-class quality and service. Not only launch partner, Sparkle is also one of the certificated vendors of NVIDIA. Currently, SPARKLE products sell in more than 80 countries and on the web at www.sparkle.com.tw