Ya, to bad you got one of the slower models. I used to recommend Sapphire but twice they have really messed up this year. First they changed their 9100 64MB card to 64bit memory bus. Real dumb idea as it slows the card down 30%. I ended up buying one a week after they changed the spec. (yuk). Then they screwed up their 9600pro?s. So, I?ve stopped recommending Sapphire and posted warnings about the cards.
In your case it?s not too bad as your only 7-10% slower which is not a huge hit like my 9100. You only need to overclock your 9600 a little to make up that performance hit without much problem. With my 9100 I?m running in 16bit color to eke out some more performance from the card. I?m going to be replacing it with a 9600pro, unfortunately for Sapphire not one of their cards this time.