drbaseball wrote:Nvidia 8800gt is the "sweet spot" card right now. It retails between $250-300.
I definitely agree with drbaseball on this one. $250-300 seems steep, but for what you are looking for, this card should allow "playing PC games out now and for the next couple years."
Only problem is that you will need to make sure your system supports PCI-E, and you have at least a 400 watt power supply with dedicated video card power. These new cards need the power bad. I got the 320mb version of the 8800GT a few months ago and I have been happy with it.
Only other thing I will add is that you will still be limited by your CPU if you have a processor that is long in the tooth. Depending on your current processor, memory, motherboard, power supply, etc., you may need to weigh your options so that you don't end up buying a vid card that then requires a few hundred more bucks of upgrades to get the best performance out of it.
What are your current system specs?
PS - What happened to db?