Ok by top of the line I mean over 100 dollars. The majority of people who play games are usually casual gamers, who play on their dell computers. They don't want to lose those costumers, so most game companies will usually have alot of leeway in terms of specs. The 9600xt should be sufficient for most current games on non crazy settings and would probably last you a good year or two. Then you can buy a new computer, because yours is aging.