I replaced a Gainward Golden Sample Ti4200 128mb (a terrific card) with the Connect3D 9500. Compared to the Ti4200, the stock 9500 holds its own and in some areas is better. 3Dmark01 scores are close but where the 9500 shines is when you turn on the AA/AF. The Ti4200 just can't keep up with it. As I've said before, I only play Tiger Woods 2003 which sucks up a lot of graphics power. The Ti 4200 with 2xAA/noAF and most eye candy on, played pretty well, but would get a little jerky from time to time. With the stock 9500 at 4xAA/8xAF, eye candy on, TW plays smooth and with the mod installed, it is excellent. 3Dmark01 for the 9500 was +20% better than the 4200 and double the single/multi fill rates. As long as you get the L memory card with the 256bus, it performs pretty good in stock setup. Digit-Life.com has reviews of the L mem 256bus 9500 which compare it to Ti4200 and others. The L mem 9500 outperforms an in-line mem 9500 by a bit. In my case, I decided that I would be happy if the mod didn't work as long as everything else worked better that it had with the Ti4200, plus I would have DX9 support and DVI for a future LCD. Just don't expect any gigantic gains over the Ti4200.
My mod has worked out for me, but I just found where a problem could exist in future DX9 games. See my next post for details.