The latest company to come to the GeForce 9600 GT parade is MSI, and like most other cards we've looked at they've decided to move away from the stock cooler and use their own design. They figure if they're going to do that, they may as well bump up the speed of the card and see what it's capable of. We feel like we've looked at so many GeForce 9600 GT cards in such a short period of time that there isn't all that much to say here. The GeForce 9600 GT has quickly become a popular little offering thanks to its performance not being like that of normal GeForce 8600 GT offerings from NVIDIA in the past. So, a nice change for the better which is certainly playing in favor of NVIDIA this time. - TweakTown

MSI GeForce 9600 GT OC Version Video Card Review

With the box in hand there isn't anything too out of the ordinary on the front. The left hand side of the box has the brand while the bottom of the box has the model number, which of course in this case is the GeForce 9600 GT. The right of the box gives us some more details and main features of the card like PCI Express 2.0, dual link DVI, HDMI ready, full 512MB of GDDR3 memory and a few other important things. Just below the list we have a sticker that mentions the card is overclocked. Turning the box over we have some more details on the features of the card along with mention of the DVI to HDMI adapter.

On to the card, and checking out the front we can see that the whole face of the card is covered with a custom cooler by MSI. You can see the heatsink and heatpipes underneath the cooler and a largish fan sitting in the middle. To the right of the card we can see a sticker that mentions the model of the card along with the brand. The cooler isn't the most flattering thing, but ultimately looks aren't at the top of the list. Moving to the side of the card we have a single 6-pin PCI Express connector and across the top of the card we have a single SLI connector. You can also see the red PCB that gives off an ATI feel.

MSI have clocked the core of the GeForce 9600 GT from 650MHz up to 700MHz. The memory has also increased from 1800MHz to 1900MHz effective, resulting in a nice little overclock all round. We have to talk about the cooler because when we saw it, the thing really did nothing for us. When we tested it though, the thing performed like an absolute champion. Not only was it able to cool better than the aftermarket option that Galaxy used, but it also came in with some great noise levels. It just goes to show that sometimes it isn't all about looks when it comes to coolers, but more the efficiency in the end that make the difference.

It is actually good to see a DVI to HDMI adapter included in the package along with the necessary cabling to get sound with it included in the bundle. There's no game included in the package, but that doesn't really seem like a huge deal. MSI have done a great job with the GeForce 9600 GT, the overclock on the memory and the core are very healthy. And this is what pretty much gives it the lead over the Radeon HD 3870 consistently, bar very few situations. This is one GeForce 9600 GT that impresses us and would sit up there with the Zotac and Palit as far as our personal favorites go. So we just added MSI to that list.

The Zotac has a mean overclock and performs great, but with the choice to use the stock cooler it isn't the most efficient. Looking at Palit, it has a huge amount of connectivity with some excellent clock speeds on tap, but its aftermarket cooler while doing an excellent job at cooling is also one of the louder ones on the market. The MSI offering is quite and cools extremely well, the clocks are good and you get HDMI with sound in the bundle. It's a great card that sits up there with the best of them.