Conclusions
The pattern in our performance testing was unmistakable: the GeForce 9600 GT is just a little bit slower than a GeForce 8800 GT and a little bit faster than the Radeon HD 3850 and 3870. Of course, that statement needs some qualification, since we tested the 8800 GT and HD 3870 at bone-stock clocks, while the 9600 GT and HD 3850 we tested were both overclocked considerably. But the basic trends we spotted were consistent, even when we reduced the 9600 GT card to Nvidia's base clock speeds. The 9600 GT also impressed us with the lowest power draw under load of any card we tested and very low noise levels—despite its amped-up clock speeds.

I'm struggling to figure out what's not to like here. One could argue that the practical performance difference between the Radeon HD 3850 512MB and the GeForce 9600 GT in our testing was largely nil. Both cards ran most games well at common resolutions like 1680x1050, even with quality levels cranked up. Image quality between the two was comparable—and uniformly good. When there was a performance difference between them, it was usually fairly minor.

This is true enough, but the performance differences were large enough in Call of Duty 4 and Half-Life 2: Epsiode Two to distinguish the 9600 GT as the better choice.

One could also argue that the 9600 GT's strong performance today may give way to relatively weaker performance down the road. If game developers shift their attention to using more and more complex shaders, the 9600 GT could end up running tomorrow's games slower than the Radeon HD 3850, which clearly has more shader processing power.

This is a possibility, I suppose.

But at the end of the day, that just means there are a couple of very good choices in the market right now. The GeForce 9600 GT is one heck of a deal in a graphics card at around $179, and that's something we like very much. If you haven't upgraded for a while and don't want to drop a lot of cash when doing so, it's hard to go wrong with the 9600 GT. This card should offer roughly twice the performance of a DX9-class graphics card like the GeForce 7900 GS or the Radeon X1950 Pro, based on what we've seen. If you want to spend a little more and get a GeForce 8800 GT, you'll get some additional future proofing in the form of shader power and just a little bit higher frame rates in today's games. Whether that's worth it will depend on your budget and your priorities. I will say this though: if there has ever been a better time to upgrade, I sure as heck don't remember it.