I have a XFX 9800 GT and if you dont overclock it, it will run very nicely. the 9600 GT may have a higher core clock but the 9800 has more processing cores and it has 512 of DDR3 on a 256 bit interface where as the 9600 has ddr2 and it is on a 128 bit interface. the 9800 will really shine at higher resolutions and with AA enabled.