8800's are worse than the 9800 because they are a generation older, the here is order from worst to best 8800 gs 8800 gt 8800 gtx the gts has a high clock speed than the gtx though, and i'm not exactly sure how they compare to the 9800's but i think the 8800 gtx is better than the 9800 gt. Look at these, scroll to the bottom to see stats about each,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_Series

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_9_Series 

I'm getting a laptop soon and it's supposed to be for school but i want to game a little on it so here are the specs that is has (it's $1000 but i have a coupon to make it $723)

 – Onyx– Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)

– Pentium(R) Dual-Core Mobile Processor T3200 (2.0 GHz)

– 15.4" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)

– FREE Upgrade to 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)

– 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

– 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

– Webcam Only

– HP Color Matching Keyboard

– Wireless-G Card

– No Modem– SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support

– No TV Tuner w/remote control

– High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery– Microsoft(R) Works 9.0– HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

 I can't go much higher, but i might be able to squeeze in a better CPU, but for a cheap laptop how decent is it? I heard that the 9600 GT is a little slower than the 8800 but i'm not an extreme gamer, just a casual, but when i play i like to play at high resolution and smooth frames, i've been dealing with my old pc for years, it can't even play AOEIII on low without freezing so this would be a big improvment. Also don't tell me to get a new desktop because i'm going to soon also...