Sparkle's Calibre 9600 GT is a graphics card with one really efficient and stylish dual-fly cooling system. Sparkle overclocked the card and it still runs silently, but it's the cooling system that truly separates this card from the rest of the GeForce 9600 GT pack. So far, we've had a chance to see a couple of nice GeForce 9600 GT custom cooling solutions, although the reference cooler is also efficient. Still, with this cooler, the Calibre 9600 GT card looks much better and stronger than reference GeForce 9600 GT graphics cards. Their cooler is dual slot and it packs two fans. Although massive, it's not too heavy since it's mostly aluminum. It does look futuristic and it most certainly is. - FudZilla

Sparkle Calibre 9600 GT 512MB Edition Board Review

The Sparkle Calibre 9600 GT edition runs at 700MHz, the shaders at 1850MHz and the memory at 2000MHz effective. We see that core overclock is coupled with high shader overclocks, too. Many partners offer GeForce 9600 GT cards at 700MHz, but most of them feature shaders at 1750MHz, whereas Sparkle opted for 1850MHz speeds. Faster shaders on their card also resulted in slightly better results on our benchmarks. The Sparkle P960 cooler has three heatpipes. Two of those are visible and are mounted on the front where they can be cooled by the fans, whereas the third heatpipe is located on the bottom of the aluminum cooler.

This copper heatpipe makes sure that heat is evenly distributed throughout the entire block. The block also leans on the memory, so it's nice and cool there too. Sparkle decided to use the standard GeForce 9600 GT memory used by most partners, and it's speedy Samsung 1.0ns memory. This card has 512MB of 256-bit memory running at 2000MHz, just like the reference card. It's important to note that the G94 core on the GeForce 9600 GT cards is a crippled version of the G92 core featuring only 64 stream processors. As reference the GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card actually come with 128 stream processors.

The card comes in quite an attractive packaging, and about a year ago we awarded the design. It's been left unchanged since then, and it's still easy on the eye. Inside, you will find the drivers and the installation manual, as well as a couple of standard cables, and of course the Sparkle Calibre 9600 GT dual-fly graphics card. Sparkle always knew how to pull the ace out of their sleeve and attract customers. If you like your hardware, then you will most definitely like the Calibre 9600 GT because it packs a nice punch and is an excellent cooler. The cooler has two moveable fans, they're quiet, and the it is overclocked to 700MHz.

The results show a very nice performance increase compared to reference, but you can always overclock it further because Sparkle has a cooler that lets you do it. Priced at $199, this is a great offer. Bear in mind that this is an overclocked card with a specially designed cooler that will definitely give you something to brag about and set you apart from the others.