This will make me sound like an ATi Zealot but here goes :
<RANT>
as interesting as the Raseon 9800 is the one I am most interested in is the Radeon 9600 Pro. the 9500 Pro at 275 Mhz could give even the G4Ti4600 a run for its money the 9600 Pro at 400 mhz and priced 199.00 is going be the card to get.
As Far as I know the Radeon 9600 Pro is going to be a redesign (probably to reduce costs or on a smaller process) but is not necessarily any faster than the 9500 Pro, it simply has some new features, like the 9800Pro compared to the 9700Pro. As for the 9500Pro giving a GF4Ti4600 a run for its money, then easy just run 3dMark2003 (GF4Ti4600 = 1500 at most, R9500Pro = 3000ish at least at a rough guess)
I am going to buy an FX because I am a NVIDIA man, and I am very impressed with the advanced features it comes with. IMO, the tests were unfair as the drivers used were BETA and not properly tested in the same situations before. I think that the FX series will perform much better with different drivers
Advanced features. Ha Ha Ha. Every card has advanced features, do they ever get used ? Answer:No. GeFArceFX adds additional features that are not part of the DX9 Spec, so will they get used : No. (Why would any programmer code specifically for just one card, this is what DirectX is for, for crying out loud). The R9800 and R9600 will also have new extra features, not required by directX, and so really this makes them equally as worthless.
As for NVIDIA Drivers, look at Toms Hardware's R9800Pro benchmarks, they compared it to the FX with both "Beta" Drivers that are being shipped with the cards, and some new drivers.
The "Beta" Drivers put the FX ahead of both the 9700Pro and 9800Pro. Why? because these drivers are optimised for benchmarks not image quality, and miss out decals and sprites like bullet holes in order to increase framerate and therefore results. With "Real" Drivers the FX is roughly on par with a Radeon 9500 Pro. And this is supposed to be NVIDIA's flagship card.
NVIDIA are the next 3DFX. Even Microsoft are thinking of using ATi chips in their next console.
</RANT>
The best card at the moment is the Radeon 9700Pro, by far, both on image quality and performance. Add to that the fact you can turn it into a R9800 simply by modding some drivers and we have a W1nn0r. Go buy Geforce FX's if you want NVIDIA fan boys, but as I told someone when they were buying a Ti4600, Save your money get the new ATi card.