I have heard a lot about unlocking pipelines on ATI cards to upgrade them but have never done it myself and do not know anyone who has. I hear they work, but you have to buy the right card, which can be difficult to tell sometimes. I also hear of artifacting problem on some of the cards as well. If it's something you want to gamble with, you could get a very fast card from a 9800 se or a 9500 with unlocked pipelines.. If you don't want to try it go with a 9600 XT.