BoomAM,
The 9500pro isn't a completely new card, its a neutered version of an existing card. Unlike the 8500, which required an entirely new driver base from existing Radeons (it wasn't an All-In-One driver set for all Radeons), the 9500pro drivers should be very similar to the 9700pro, with some optimizations (I guess you can call them optimizations when you have to dummy-down features). Taking that into consideration, I have serious doubts that optimized drivers will make up the 10-20% performance gap from the ti4600, and I'm not even looking at the benches from higher resolutions where the extra 64MB would be beneficial.
Yah, I wouldn't be surprised if the 9500pro's performance increases in its retail form, but don't forget that nVidia has a nasty habit of releasing "New" detonators whenever ATI releases a new product.
I think you might be confused with the standard 9700 and the 9500 pro, as from AT's review:
The Radeon 9500 Pro has two 64-bit DDR memory controllers instead of the four in the Radeon 9700 Pro. This cuts the 9500 Pro's memory bandwidth to half of the 9700 Pro at identical clock speeds, and puts it in line with the GeForce4's 128-bit DDR memory subsystem.
As for all these advanced features that the ti4600 will be struggling with, you don't think the 9500pro will have the same problems??? It may have dx9 support, but chugging along at 25fps isn't exactly what I'd call "Steaming Ahead." I'm sure those people who bought a Radeon DDR b/c of DX8 support are pleased with how their cards are running today's games. By the time games fully implement dx9, a 9700pro may very well be listed as a minimum req.
As for waiting for a company to finish tuning their drivers, that may never happen with ATI. Yah everyone has a reason to bash either nVidia or ATI about drivers, but after owning an 8500, gf3 ti200, and now a gf4 ti4200 turbo in the past year, I can honestly say that only nVidia has consistently delivered on performance upon release. You can wait and hope for a new driver release that will make a card perform to its potential, or you can get a card that works as advertised from the start. The 9700pro is a different story, but its a bit too pricey atm.
Like I said, I'd wait for the 9700 and see what's available at that point. The 9500pro will be around the same price as the gf4's with similar peformance at best. If you can get a 9700 for the price of current ti4600's...that'd be the way to go, otherwise I see no difference in getting an overclockable gf4 now instead of waiting for the 9500pro.
Chiz