so hard to decide :(

[AFG34]

Hi, im bout to build my new computer. It was pretty easy to decide on most parts except for the video card. I don't know what to get :( Here is my situation:
I can get the Asus 3850 for 216.7 (tax included, local store)
eVGA 8800GT for $280 (tax included, local store)
and 3870 for the same price as 8800GT^^.

I am just playing UT3 for now (@ 1280*1024) and so i can probably sell the CoH; Opposing Fronts game for about $20 which comes with the 3850. Also, i probably won't be playing much untill x-mas break so do you think i should buy a p.o.s. pci vid card just to give a signal to my monitor untill xmas time which is like 2 weeks? Are prices gonna come down?

Also, 8800GT 256MB will be available to us canadians by next week or so....(DC is posting it for $206) - i think this is my best option if it were to be available next week.

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

btw, e6550 + TRUE, GA 965P-DS3, SuperTalent DDR2 800, Enermax Liberty 500W..etc

[MadMan007]

If that's the res you'll be using for the life of the card the 3850 ought to be enough honestly. If you know 100% you're going to upgrade monitor resolution then get one of the higher cards, maybe, although you could resell the 3850 and hope for price drops by the time you buy one of the others to compensate for the loss on reselling.

[White_Pawn]

for 60 dollars more, there is no reason to get the 8800GT.

i'd say wait a few days, on the day of the release of the 8800GTS 512mb (dec12) check the price. If it is ~$300, buy that instead. At stock, the 8800GTS is quite a bit faster than the 8800GT. Once you overclock the 8800GT, the difference is not as much, but of course, you can also OC the GTS as well. On terms of performance at OC'd levels, i haven't been able to see any BM.

Otherwise, i'd say that 3870 is the way to go. They also overclock very well once you do the bios mod. I've seen 1ghz core and 1ghz ram.

[AFG34]

ordered the 3850, $174 from DC