One of the best for the money/performance!

I bought this card to upgrade from a 6600GT - I picked up a 22" monitor and just had to have a video card to go with it!

The 8800GT was the first card of choice, but at the time it was at least $50 (or more) than the 9600GT and from what I read online the benchmarks were't all THAT much different so I went for it and was thrilled!

It's a large card, so make sure it will fit in your case, and it requires at least a 500watt power supply to give the video card some extra juice ... if you don't have this, it will automatically throttle the card down to (ironically enough) 6600gt performance levels!

It doesn't seem to get too hot, and I run it through it's paces pretty well on a regular basis.

It plays all the Half Life 2 episodes at full resolution 1680x1050 at FULL detail smooth as butter, and the Need For Speed games at full res AND full detail.

I couldn't be happier with it at all!

(oh, and it has dual monitor out - once I find a need for dual monitor, I'm buying another one to match  more