Excellent, thanks for the link.

Just got home and looked up the price of the 2900 XT 1GB for the first time. Holy Frijoles! Yes, that must be what you guys thought i bought and, yes, that would have been a really dumb move.

Allow me to point out how much I appreciate the reasonable and non-condescending way in which you pointed out my perceived stupidity. This is a perfect example of why Madshrimps has become my favorite PC enthusiast site. You guys are knowledgeable, helpful and ALWAYS NICE about it to boot. Rare combo on the 'ol series of tubes. :)

When are you online @ TF2? Should meet up:)

the HD 2900 Pro will get competition from the 65m 8800 GT which will be released before the end of the month, I'm also expecting this 8800 to overclock nicely, and with Rivatuner's help, being able to separately clock GPU/Shader/Mem you're bound for excellent performance:)

from what I've seen from the HD 2900 XT, the performance is... unstable? not as in the system will crash, but as in the lack of consistency in providing high performance, it really depends on the game and IQ settings, compared to the NVIDIA 8 series which does above average in all games without exception.

You're right that you can always wait for the "next best thing", but the NVIDIA release cycle is very close by, it would have been worth the wait? We'll find out:)

As long as you are happy with it, is what matters I guess. :) I do know what you mean though, not fun to actually have a big monitor and no way to actually enjoy it in the latest games.

Never did spot any friends requests... ;) I usually play in the evenings US CST/CDT. Not playing even half as much as I was last two weeks, and working on the last couple achievements I have left to get but I am still on even for a brief bit most evenings just to unwind...

I too am online playing TF2 in the later evening CST. Same nick as here. I have added jmke but not Kougar yet, will do tonight.

Hmm I wasn't aware of the 8800 GT and I hear you re. the shader clock. Still think I made a good choice, but, yes, we will see :-) Can always return or re-sell it. I'd love an 8800 or 9800 GTX but I refuse to spend so much on a video card, period.

From my past experiences, I now only plan to get one of the top-end "new" cards after they are just released... pay a large amount yes, but if you buy the right generation the card will last 2-3 years with good performance and I feel as such be well worth it in the end run.

8800GTX is probably the best example of that, almost a year old and will be a great card a year from now, perhaps longer. Hoping the 9800 models will prove to be the same, those early reports certainly seem to promise as much.... Heck if I only had a 640mb GTS instead of 320mb I would be set for another year, but 1920x1200 is just not a sub-512mb friendly resolution with eye candy enabled.

Bought a 8800GTX last year, never regretted:)

Don't I know it :)

Cool stats on this server: http://2fort.hlstatsx.com/hlstats.ph... 2#playerkills

Machinima in TF2 :)