Umm, I have no clue.  I have nothing to compare it to.  And I can't remember the current leaders of those speeds.  What chipset it that?  8300, 8600, 8800?

I'm telling you, unless you absolutly CAN'T wait until after christmas, then only get a new card.
I would wait until prices drop and thats not gonna happen BEFORE christmas.  Also, you want to get a card that supports DirectX 10 because 9c is on the way out.  Most major developers are not making in-production games with DX 9c, its 10 all the way.

Search google for "GFX/video card comparison"  or something like that.  There are web sites that allow you to pick two or more Vcards and it will compare them for you.

You still didn't tell me your computer specs.  I might be able to save you some time and frustration if you let me know them.

Under start menu=>run     type "dxdiag" to get a list of your specs (omit quotes when typing).

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1022MB RAM
and the chipset was a 8600

well the fact is i dont beleive the 8800 price will drop low enough for me to buy it
even after christmas, i dont want to spend all my money on a video card.

"""The manufacturer means almost NOTHING. The TYPE OF THE CARD IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTE. A 8800GT is an 8800GT is an 8800GT, sure you might have one overclocked by the factory but they're going to be roughly the same in benchmarks.

And, like I said, VRAM only really matters in high resolutions.

Heat issues and power consumption are moot issues if you have decent cooling (read: two fans) and a 450-500W minimum psu 

There is absolutely no reason you should be saying to someone that doesn't know anything about graphics cards that he should be comparing a bunch of useless clock speeds against each other. It's like comparing a Core 2 Duo and a Pentium III and saying you need to look at the clock speeds. There is less variation in graphics cards than there is in CPUs - the type of the card is again more important than any variation (manufacturer, etc) inside that type.

Don't throw stones in glass houses."""

Wow.  Just wow.   You keep thinking that.
How is power consumption moot?  Do you even know what amps are?  You make heating issues sound like they are irrelevent?

An 8800 is an 8800 is an 8800 is NOT true.  The chips themselves are the same but the layouts are different.  Benchmarks being the same, no squeezey pooh.  There a small differences that can amount to much.

In your original post you said to look for just the name brand and vRAM.  That is an error I've seen made by tons of ill-informed people.  I was trying to tell the TC thats not all you should look for it was not a personal attack against you.

Don't you think someone who is new to Vcards should know all the information vs. your stunted information.

Lots of people buy cards and are dissatisfyed with them because of ignorance, ie. the Vcard doesn't fit in the tower, wrong PS, not enough fans.

You were leading him down a path with much more chances to err.  I was giving him much more vital information to make an INFORMED decision.

TO TC:  You can take what you want from this thread, I'm not trying to start an argument.

Maybe we need an intervention from the mods to settle this.