Motherboard:
EVGA 680i SLI (Provided by EVGA)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme edition (Provided by Intel)

Memory:
OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18  (Provided by OCZ)
        during testing CL5-5-5-15-CR2T 1066MHz at 2.2V

PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black (Provided by OCZ)

Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Provided by Seagate)

CPU-Cooler:
Freezer 7 Pro (Provided by Artic Cooling)

Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM

Vista 32 SP1

Futuremark



Vantage reports MSI as the fastest cards, but the overclocked GSO is not far behind. We also have two Radeon cards, HD 3850 with 256MB of memory as well as the new HD 4670 that scored around 1000 marks less than the Hybrid Freezer card.

Gaming



Geforce 9600 GSO is slower than 9600 GT, and our today’s testing confirmed that. The older HD 3850 has antialiasing issues which were fixed in HD 4xxx generation, and HD 4670 catches up in exactly those scenarios.



Thanks to its memory and core speeds, MSI showed that it’s the fastest and ready to step up when it’s needed.




Conclusion

It’s been a long time since we’ve tested such an interesting card, and this card is special due to Hybrid Freezer cooling. When doing 2D tasks, the card will operate as passive, and cooling won’t kick in until 3D apps or games heat up the GPU to a certain threshold.

In order to provide a nice gaming experience at higher, bandwidth hungry resolutions, MSI used 1GB of Qimonda GDDR3 memory. The core is factory overclocked from reference 650 to 700MHz, which will provide that additional push and smoother gaming.

This card, just like all 8th and 9th generation Geforce cards, features CUDA and PhysX support, supports DX10.0 games and comes with good multimedia capabilities. MSI will provide an HDMI connector and a SPDIF cable, in case you want to view your HD movies on your HDTV device.

However, the downside to this card is a price that’s much higher than that of the model with 512MB of memory and reference cooling. We’re not sure whether the market will be forgiving as €140, which is the price you’ll pay for MSI N9600 GT Hybrid Freezer, can buy you a much better graphics card. Other than that, the card is really a treat, and we sincerely recommend it if you manage to find it at a lower price.