XFX GeForce 9600 GSO XXX 384MB video card review

No sooner had we put the finishing touches to our Radeon HD 4670 review, giving it the nod over NVIDIA's reference-based GeForce 9600 GSO in the process, than we got a proverbial tap on the shoulder from the good people at XFX, who proceeded similarly proverbially to slip us a graphics board under the table.  "You might want to take a look at this before you declare a winner in this price range" was the general gist of their thoughts, and as we took a look at said graphics board we spotted the company's 'XXX' logo adorning it, and began to understand why - After all, XFX's previous XXX offerings have offered up some almost obscene overclocks over reference boards.

So, here we are, with the GeForce 9600 GSO XXX revved up and raring to go.  It was a close race between a reference GeForce 9600 GSO and Radeon HD 4670 in both price and performance terms last time around, so can XFX's offering do enough to stand out from the pack and become the beast that shouted "I" at the heart of the world?  Before I start getting any more over-the-top in my proclamations, we'd better get started with the review and find out.