nCliff,
I don't think you could be un-tactful (equiv) if your life depended on it.
Evidently there are loads of special versions of these cards. Creative even made a DDR(!) GF2MX which sold for more, but wasn't any faster at all as the mem speed isn't the bottleneck.
Deborah,
What CPU is in that HTPC of yours? Also, what OS and DirectX versions are you using? The SS normally isn't particulary CPU dependent, but I don't know what to ask for to find a solution to this and am thus guessing quite wildly.
/Tiny Guesser