Please set me straight, 8800GTX vs. 8800GTvs.8800GTS vs.9600

[Teslyn]

I have a build set to go on newegg:

-Antec 900 case
-Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
-Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
-Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1200 (PC2 9600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC22G9600ELK - Retail x 2
-GIGABYTE GA-EX38-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
-BFG Tech BFGR88768GTXOCE GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
-BFG Tech BFGR800WPSULE ATX 12V 2.2 and EPS 12V 2.91 800W Power Supply - Retail
-Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6750 - Retail

And my normal old NEC 21" CRT monitor that I will probably never give up until God himself comes down and takes it from me.

My gaming habits are thus:
City of Heroes - I'd probably neer go above 1600X1200 res but I would like to max out all settings
Older games that don't matter.
Crysis (haven't picked it up but I'd like to)
Witcher (see Crysis)
Hellgate London
Assassin Creed
And the real reason I want to upgrade is: Age of Conan.

Again, I'm not really one to see the reason for playing games on ultra high resolutions, I never could see the difference aside from everything being microscopically small. But I would like to get as much detail out of what I can. Never had a system that could balls out run AA and FA (not even sure what those settings do, but I guess it looks good to run them) and I'd like to change that.

Problem is, it sounds like people make good arguments for any of the current gaming cards.

A noob like me stands no chance of not buying something I won't ultimately need.

Thanks much in advance for any advice.

 

[Maziar]

8800GTX > 8800GTS 512 > 8800GT> > 9600GT

If u play @ 1920x1200 or higher, go for 8800GTX
If u play @ resolutions lower than go for 8800GTS 512 (Although a 8800GT suffice)

A good note from HOTHARDWARE.COM:
It is little difficult to summarize the new GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB card’s performance. In games or benchmarks where fillrate and shader performance are the limiting factors, these new cards are excellent performers and can outpace even a GeForce 8800 GTX. But in situations where memory bandwidth and frame buffer size are more important, like say at high resolutions with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled, the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB can’t quite keep up with the more expensive GTX due to its narrower memory bus and smaller frame buffer. Generally speaking though, the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB’s performance is better than the original 640MB GTS and the relatively new 8800 GT and on-par with the GeForce 8800 GTX at lower resolutions. Crank up the resolutions, however, and the GTX (or Ultra) is still the king of the hill.

 

[seabreeze]

Yep, performance wise, Maziar is spot on. The only resolution you've mentioned is 1600x1200, so go with a 8800GTS512 if your budget allows, otherwise the 8800GT512 should be chosen over the 9600GT. Age of Conan is you main reason to upgrade. Compare some of the vga charts here and elsewhere for most games (not Crysis) at 1600x1200 auto AA or 4xAA and 16xAF to see what the difference is.

Guru3d charts show the following at said resolution:
GRAW2 GTS512 84fps, GTX 82fps, GT512 74fps, 9600GT 65fps.
Stalker GTX 53fps, GTS512 47fps, GT512 43fps, 9600GT 38fps.
COD4 GTX 51fps, GTS512 47fps, GT512 42fps, 9600GT 35fps.

Also, the GTX is getting a bit long in the tooth. The GTS512 is my choice at the resolution you need, but I'm usually running at 1280x1024, so a GT512 suits me fine.