EVGA has four GeForce 9600 GT series cards and it was generous enough to let us have a go at the fastest one. This card's GPU is clocked at 740MHz and it's currently the fastest out of the box overclocked GeForce 9600 GT on the market. As we have said, EVGA has three more GeForce 9600 GT cards in its offer, depending on how much cash you're willing to cough up. There's the reference GeForce 9600 GT at 650MHz, the SuperClocked at 675MHz and the KO version at 700MHz. The memory on the SSC card runs at a high 1950MHz, just 150MHz over the reference 1800MHz. And although it sports much higher clocks than the reference card, the SSC edition is still pretty much a reference design. - FudZilla

EVGA e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC Edition Board Review

EVGA chose to stick to NVIDIA's stock cooler on this card. As we've already checked several GeForce 9600 GT cards we can say that this is not a bad choice, as even the stock cooler has enough muscle to cool the G94 GPU and it's quiet, too. It's a single slot design, similar to the one used on the various GeForce 8800 GT cards. It has a copper base, copper heatpipe, while the fins are aluminum. The G94 GPU is a 65nm part and its architecture is similar to that of the G92, which is the heart of G92 based GeForce 8800 cards. Thanks to this, the price to performance ratio is very good for the GeForce 9600 GT cards.

It's supposed to be a replacement for the GeForce 8600 series, but it's a much more serious card than any GeForce 8600. With its 64 stream processors, the GeForce 9600 GT has twice the firepower of the GeForce 8600 GT with only 32 stream processors. For comparison, the latest incarnation of the GeForce 8800 GTS has 128 stream processors. With its 256-bit memory interface the GeForce 9600 GT offers much more bandwidth than the previous 128-bit on the GeForce 8600 generation and it performs almost twice as well also. The card requires additional power via a 6-pin power connector which is easily accessible.

Since the introduction of the GeForce 9600 GT, things have heated up in the mainstream market segment. We've already seen that the GeForce 8800 GT is still a bit faster, but the Radeon HD 3870 is a very close match, both in terms of performance and price. It's really not an easy choice to make. NVIDIA's GeFforce 9600 GT is a full DirectX 10 card with Shader Model 4.0, OpenGL 2.1 and PCI Express 2.0 support. The second generation PureVideo HD engine is supposed to provide high picture and video quality. The box is pretty much standard, but we don't understand why EVGA didn't emphasize clock speed.

NVIDIA's GeForce 9600 GT is quite a painful pill for the Radeon HD 3870 cards. It has a good price to performance ratio and NVIDIA's new mid-range product proves to be more than a good choice in this price segment. EVGA's SSC version is currently the fastest GeForce 9600 GT on the market, with a core overclocked all the way up to 740MHz. It easily beats other GeForce 9600 GT cards thanks to its high clocks, which are clocked at 1835MHz for the shaders and at 1950MHz effective for the memory. The card is a reference design and we have no complaints about its cooler. It's effective, quiet even during gaming.

However, the GeForce 9600 GT is not as powerful as the GeForce 8800 GT, which is just $30 more expensive. On the other hand, the GeForce 9600 GT is easily comporable to the Radeon HD 3870 and the prices are close, too, so both ATI and NVIDIA lovers now have a choice in this price segment. EVGA's e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC edition is priced at $210, and while it is the fastest GeForce 9600 GT on the market, it's also one of the most expensive ones. Considering that you can now get EVGA's e-GeForce 8800 GT for the same cash, it's not easy to see why you should get one right now.