Running DX9 games on Radeon 9600 Pro

lol...so my card is crap, and ever since 3dmark03 it's been crap. I'm upgrading in the coming weeks, but can someone tell me if my suspicions are right? When I play games like Oblivion and Prey, my FPS drops to almost 0 from 25-30 for a quick second and goes back, doing it again in the same pattern. This is not your typical lag. Could it be that DX9 shaders and whatnot aren't cool with my card? I just want to know before I put my 9600 in the backup card box.

its just old, so year, its ok to let it go and get a new one

That card is way too old for Oblivion. Not to mention it doesn't support SM3.0. That's what makes these new games look so shiny!

Nothing is wrong with your card, it just doesnt have the horsepower to run the latest games.