With newer games getting more and more demanding, the amount of frame buffer available to the GPU has been on a continuous rise. However, as we saw in the previous ASUS Extreme N8800 GT 1GB edition article, it doesn't always help to equip your graphics card with more buffer memory than the reference design of a manufacturer. Today, we see MSI going down that road with their 1GB version of the GeForce 9600 GT graphics card. Though unlike ASUS, besides adding more memory, MSI has also added more speed to the card by overclocking its core to 675MHz and outfitted it with a custom heatsink. The question that remains to be answered, does it get the job done and does it provide added value? - t-break

MSI GeForce 9600 GT 1GB Graphics Version Preview

The GeForce 9600 GT comes in a reasonably sized black box that provides all the details. The red-hot PCB based MSI GeForce 9600 GT has anything but a reference cooling design. The custom heatsink has an 80mm fan in the middle hidden inside a red plastic cover. The cover is lifted from the rear side to allow access to the power connector and looking from here, you can get a peak at the heatsink as well. Looking at the top side of the cover, you can see the huge heatsink which almost covers the entire card. You can also see two heatpipes for better heat transfer and also greater overclocking ability.

The GeForce 9600 GT is a card that you would buy if you want to play games at medium to low widescreen resolutions. Although most games we tested under these resolutions played well, you always have something like Crysis that these kind of cards just can't handle. While the MSI's extra 512MB certainly helped in Crysis and World in Conflict, the GPU just isn't made to handle that kind of load. On almost all other games we tested, we noticed that ECS' GeForce 9600 GT which is 512MB stock, scored higher than the MSI GeForce 9600 GT with 1GB memory, though not running at the reference NVIDIA clock speeds.

The reason for that is that the ECS card is slightly more overclocked than the MSI card and this, again, tell you that extra memory doesn't really help in mid-ranged cards, at least not the ones based on NVIDIA chipset as seen in our ASUS GeForce 8800 GT 1GB ersion article as well. You're better off getting a higher clocked card than getting one with more memory. The MSI GeForce 9600 GT 1GB OC edition is available for about $270 which is a little expensive price for a GeForce 9600 GT card.