Well I can run Counter Strike, GTA:VC and DeusEx2 at 1024*768*32bit with 4x FSAA and 16x Aniso without any performance loss..

and that's on a 64mb radeon 8500 with a pentium3 733mhz..

don't think he'll have problems with his 9600xt..

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Correct- I play in 1024 x 768 with all graphics options cranked to the max and FSAA x 6 and Filtering set to 8x or better. Since I don't run at 1600 x 1200 the extra ram of the 256 meg cards would be useless.

Pound for pound the 9800 will be faster (even when cpu limited) then the 9600 due to double the pipelines when everything is turned on, a key piece to remember and the price difference between the 9600 and the 9800 isn't all that great.

As a bonus when/if you upgrade the card will have more cushion for future games then the 9600.

Just some thoughts.

*ehm*

I do hope nobody buys a Radeon 9x00 for Counterstrike (?)

The way I understood it, the purchase Options in question were intended not for years old legacy Games like CS that run fine on 3rd line Graphics Cards, but rather serve as a future oriented investment (we're talking Farcry, UT2004, Doom3, HL2 and alike Engines)

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Indeed, Doom3 will make your video card grunt a bit.

I know it does on my computer

Sorry, you lost me there.

I sure as hell don't hope people are even stealing Cards to play Counterstrike then

Alright people.

Well, I've bought a card, and you may be suprised as to what I have gone for.
I bought a Radeon 9500 Pro (built by ATI), fully retail boxed with all it's goodies for $76.00 (£41).
My reasons?:

1) I took DenisF's advice on the bottlenecks my machine will produce trying to run high-end cards (even with 256Mb RAM, as I take it this extra memory won't make a difference on my mid-range machine), and that I should avoid the high-end cards as shelling out the wads of dosh for these cards will not give me the performance gains you guys with high-end machines will be getting.

2) I took gdonovan's advice on the pipeline architecture making all the difference in terms of performance, rather than video memory.  I have also seen the benchmarks between the 9500 Pro Vs. the 9600 Pro/XT, and the 9500 leaves them both standing!

3) I took my mate, paulpsomiadis' advice, as he is a hardcore modding maniac  and he already has the experience with the 9500/9700 series.  He knows his stuff, so I trust his judgement completely.

This card is a good all-round card and is ideal for me.  I get some great performance from the card with it's 8 pipeline architecture, won't suffer as many performance bottlenecks as I would with say, something like a 9800 Pro, and the card was good value for money IMHO. 

Let me know what you think guys on my purchase, and if I have made a decent choice or not?

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1) The 9500 is a DX9 part

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=88&var2=0

2) Should support everything the Doom3 needs, only question is clockspeed.

Good compromise choice! Only downsize I see is the clockspeed compared to the 9800 but you might be able to bring that up some.