which will see better performance?

Hey I'm trying to make a new build, to over-clock, before the end of the month. That being said, I have an issue with choosing a video card. I'm very sure I want to go with either a 9600gt or an 8800gt. The 9600gt I can get for $144.99 and the 8800gt I can get for $174.99. (US $) the cards are:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127333

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130318

Which one would perform better? The 9600gt has higher clocks, but I know that isn't everything. It lacks more stream processors. Also, I could over-clock the 8800gt to higher clocks. So my question is which should I get for better performance? (I plan on playing Bioshock, Portal, HL 2 ep2, Crysis, C&c 3, and Spore to name a few)


There is a similar topic here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] -cards#bas

thanks guys (if you respond)

That's only because at lower resolutions the gpu isn't being taxed enough for the difference to show. Will you notice faster cpu speeds by browsing web pages?

8800gt, based on the g92 gpu, perform significantly better than the 9600gt, based on the g94 gpu, the scaled down counterpart to g92. Also, lower clock rate is better, it makes the card more overclockable.

I will be playing at 1440x 900 resolution. I will also be using an e2180 OC to hopefully about 3ghz.

I, too, am a heavy 'tabber'. quad core ftw