I've never had an issue with genuine Apple 9600 cards. Flashed PC cards with Apple roms don't seem to work correctly (in particular the 9600s).

I have only one flashed card in my procession that works 100% perfectly (a Radeon 9800 Pro).

As to the card edge, it's hard to believe it would initialize and function at all if the was too dirty.

9600's are not the fastest cards, but with the functions that are disabled on yours, I amazed you can tolerate using it at all.