msi 9600gt, thinking about buying

I'm thinking about buying this card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127332

MSI N9600GT-T2D512 OC GeForce 9600GT

I game at 1280 x 1024 and the 8800gt is only marginally better at that resolution so I'd rather get a 9600 or 3870
The reason I'd get this one over any other 9600gt is because of the free witcher game.

Is it a sound investment? I couldn't find any reviews on that specific card. The fact that most MSI card's are the cheapest in any model category makes me kind of nervous

and will prices for the 9600 be dropping any time soon?

I'd get it just for The Witcher if I were you. When I'm not playing LOTR online, I'm playing The Witcher. It's a good game. I don't know if that card's overclocked, but MSI often puts out overclocked models. My MSI 3870x2 is factory overclocked @ 850/1300.

Right now, I'm stuck with a 17" CRT, so I'm CPU limited, but I can get around 50-60 fps in The Witcher with the highest quality settings. I bought the 3870x2 over the 3870 based on reviews that the game liked that card, but stuttered with a single 3870.

It's funny seeing it bundled with an Nvidia card. It's not one of the "The way it's meant to be played" titles, whereas LOTR online is. In LOTR I can still get everything at full, except very sharp detail instead of AF, with anywhere from 25-39 fps with the DX10 patch.

The 9600gt goes neck and neck with a 3870, so it's a good deal right now. I just hope you get the game from Newegg, as it says "while supplies last".

The only MSI rubbish I ever owned was a motherboard that had an Nvidia 405 chipset, and that I blame Nvidia for. I haven't had any issues with my cheap 690V board or expensive overclocked 3870x2. I'd put MSI in the second tier of motherboard manufacturers behind ASUS and Gigabyte, but ahead of ECS (their motherboards are almost always the ones Fry's bundles with CPU's).

Aside from Nvidia's 7xxx series blur, I had no issues with the MSI 7600gs I had on that Nvidia 405 board. When I ditched the board for AMD's chipset, I gave the card to a friend who's using it for WoW. So, Nvidia often has overclocked GPU's but their motherboards aren't overclocker friendly, outside of the Platinum series.