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NVIDIA's ninth generation of video cards gained a new member last week, with the introduction of the GeForce 9600 GSO.

The 9600 GSO will sell on the shelves beside the first 9600 out, the 9600 GT. In the accepted hierarchy of things, the 9600 GSO should sell for less than the 9600 GT, and offer slightly less performance. However this might not be the case in all gaming situations,because the 9600 GSO has more shader processors than the 9600 GT. If you were to compare the 9600 GSO to the current ATI lineup, it would land somewhere between the HD 3850 and HD 3870 when it comes to gaming.

Although the 9600GSO is the newest addition to NVIDIA's ninth generation, it isn't exactly as new as one might think. The standard 9600GSO shares all of the same specifications as does the 8800GS, which came out in January of this year. Although the under-reviewed 8800GS did not weigh down many North American hardware shelves, in Europe this card obtained a slightly more noticeable reputation as a less expensive, well-performing, sort-of “8800 GT Lite”, with  significant overclocking potential. While being re-packaged as 9600 GSO might annoy those who believe they are getting the latest product still hot out of NVIDIA's fabs, this card nonetheless has a combination of enticing specifications that could point towards a gaming bargain.

Today we will be reviewing a 9600GSO Sonic, from Palit. Similar to other Sonic models from Palit, this particular card is overclocked, has more memory, and has a custom cooling solution. With that out-of-the-box overclock it should make things interesting as we see how its performance compares to a host of 10 other video cards in our benchmarks.

Selling for $139.99 the 9600 GSO has the potential to be a cheap ticket to NVIDIA's ninth.