I've been out of gaming for awhile, and now I've decided to get back in. I am going to (hopefully) build my own machine, but first I'm trying to decide what graphics card to go with. I don't want to spend more than 250-300, and the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256 looks best to me. I want a card that will last-I don't want to spend another $200 in 2 years. With Far Cry out and Doom 3/Halflife 2 on the horizon, what card should I go with, and as such what processor/speed range should I look at?

Also, what processor would be ideal (for less than $400) to go along with the prescribed video cards. Thanks everyone

Get yourself a Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb, as the 256mb will not make any difference at the moment, also get yourself and Athlon 64 3200 and 2x 512 DDR PC3200, MSI K8T NEO motherboard and you will have an awesome gaming PC, mine in the sig, plays DOOM 3 and HL2 alpha fantastically, they will well be worth the wait ;-) I also average 60-90 fps at ultra high settings on Far Cry ________________________ MSI KT8 NEO Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2.0ghz 1.0 GB DDR PC3200 2X 160 GB HDD Hightech Excalibur Radeon 9800 Pro Iceq 128mb ( Core 425 MHz and Memory 380 MHz ) 3DMark 2001 SE = 20,396 Points 3DMark 2003 = 6,396 Points

yup i would go with Zero Cool's advice...if you are willing to wait a few months, prices will drop for the current best video cards because of the release of the nVidia GeForce 6800 series//ATI Radeon x800 series