It's been a while since we've seen anything from Albatron. That's about to change though, as today we have with us the GeForce 9600 GT version. The thing that's particularly exciting about the Albatron GeForce 9600 GT is that it really follows nothing but the reference design, including the core and memory clock. Why would we be excited about this? The thing is, we've looked at so many GeForce 9600 GT video cards since launch and every single model has carried with it an overclock. We're not complaining, but we haven't actually had a chance to look at the GeForce 9600 GT in its stock form, and it will really be interesting to see how it fairs especially against their many overclocked counterparts. - TweakTown

Albatron GeForce 9600 GT 512MB Video Card Review

While this card carries with it stock clocks which we haven't seen before, the stock cooler it uses is familiar to us, having been used by some brands since launch. It manages to take up the whole front of the card with a silver like NVIDIA logo on the front. We can also see towards the external side of things the Albatron logo very faintly. Having a look around the card it's exactly what you would expect from any other GeForce 9600 GT. The side gives us a single PCI Express power connector, the top gives us a single SLI connector. The Albatron offering carries the stock clocks of 650MHz core and 1800MHz memory clock.

The GeForce 9600 GT continues to impress, even under a completely stock setup. The Albatron offering we've got here today is one of the cheapest GeForce 9600 GT's that we've looked at, and if you're looking for no frills performance on a bit of a budget then this is the kind of setup you want. If you take some time to download RivaTuner you will find yourself getting to that 700MHz core and 2000MHz memory clock that we see on some of the higher overclocked offerings like the VVikoo one we saw in the graphs today. Sure, Albatron could have gone for an aftermarket cooler or added a full version game.

Instead they have a well performing card that offers a good price. While on the topic of price, the GeForce 9600 GT offerings without any real bundle continue to come in around twenty percent cheaper than the Radeon HD 3870. Considering at most the Radeon HD 3870 might win slightly on the GeForce 9600 GT and more often than not scoring around the same as the Albatron GeForce 9600 GT, you may find yourself having trouble justifying the Radeon HD 3870 over the GeForce 9600 GT version. And when performance is very similar we tend to go for the one that comes in cheaper with on edge on tweaking ability.

The only time you would probably find yourself picking up a Radeon HD 3870 over the GeForce 9600 GT is if you are looking at going down the CrossFire path as the Intel based chipsets still seem to be the weapon of choice for people who want a nice quick trouble free system. It's a simple formula that works. If you are looking for a GeForce 9600 GT and want to spend as little as possible, look for an offering that doesn't have all the frills in the package like the Albatron.