As submitted to http://acanac.org/blogs/geek/

Over the past few weeks I've watched the GeForce 8800GT pricing continually drop.  In fact, it dropped to the point where I couldn't ignore it anymore.  I finally caved and ordered a new card!  I had my choice of two really sweet deals.  A Galaxy GeForce 8800GT for $149 CAD (after mail-in rebate) or a XFX GeForce 8800GT for $169 CAD (after mail-in rebate).  I settled on the XFX branded card since it's a better known brand and it comes with a rock solid warranty.  If you are reading this in time and the sale is still on, follow this link to get to the card on the NCIX website:

XFX GeForce 8800GT 512MB 600MHZ 1.8GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E DIRECTX10 Video Card  (If it's not there anymore, or the price has changed, I apologize!)

My intentions to this point had been to upgrade my CPU, motherboard and RAM before I did the video card, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  When I started seeing the prices bottom out, I headed on over to Tom's Hardware to get the scoop on the latest and greatest computer hardware.  You see, Tom's is great for helping you get a comparative analysis when you are trying to select new hardware.  Tom's provides the Tom's Hardware VGA Charts to help you understand the performance impacts of different types of hardware.  In this case, when I compared the new card against my older eVga GeForce 7800GT, it was obvious that the value was there.  In almost every single test, the 8800GT typically produced 2x the frames per second (FPS) of the 7800GT.  In some testing, the 8800GT actually tripled the output of the 7800GT.  Being an avid UT3 fan, my mind was made up.  If you are currently thinking about an upgrade in the video card area, this is your best bang for the buck today.  Here are some stats on this fine piece of hardware...