I'm going to be purchasing a new video card in the next few weeks. I have an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe mobo, 2 gigs of RAM, E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz. My current video card is an ATI 850 XT.

I'm not particular to ATI or Nvidia either way. I ended up with the mobo on a recommendation and the video card because it was on sale.

I'm looking to spend $350 to $450 (U.S.). I'm hoping to use this card for the next two years. I play games but I'm not interested in Crossfire or SLI. I do not need the latest or greatest. Just looking to future-proof my purchase. I just want one card. I want it to be PCI 2.0. I will be upgrading the mobo, RAM and CPU eventually as well.

The new ATI 3870's look nice but the lifetime warranty on EVGA Nvidia products is very appealing. Plus, I'm not trying to rumor-monger here, but Nvidia's future looks much brighter than ATI/AMD.

Any suggestions are welcome.

If you can scout around, perhaps you can buy a 3870X2 for around $400-$450.

Otherwise, the 8800GTS 512MB will serve you well.

EDIT: But before that, what's your PSU?

My PSU is a PC Power & Cooling 750 quad. I upgraded a few months ago knowing I was going to need more than my old unit.

Well then, the fastest video card out there right now, the 3870x2 will last you quite awhile. If you can wait awhile, the 9800GX2 and the 3870x2 refresh (GDDR4) will be out soon.

What resolution do you play games at? And what is your monitors native resolution?

The good news is you have a e6600 so you can use the newest video cards.
For now I think the 8800GT or 3870 are plenty good. There is the larger 3870-X2 or 9800GX2, but those cards cost a lot more and have only modest performance gains. Your 750 watt PSU should be plenty anyway,

In about 1 year there will be the Nehalem CPUs and a new generation of video cards (r700/g100) which will finally be serious "8800GTX killers".
This next generation will have completely different sockets, motherboards, slots, RAM, etc. So you will need new everything anyway. Keep your good PSU for the next few years.

I think the 8800GTS 512 is a sweet spot. It usually beats the GTX and is much better than the 3870, and although it's slightly more expensive than the 8800GT it also has more performance. You get near 3870x2 performance for $150 less than the 3870x2, but you're only spending $50(ish) more than an 8800GT.

at 450 i would go with the hd 3870 x2

first it has 5.1 sound with hdmi - pretty cool seeing as bluray-rom are around $200

second i think with time the "X2" will pull further a head

you read all the nvidia bias above! everyone says nvidia - try ati again - the new x2 rules!

you have ati and ati looks better - its still looks better go with ati

the p5w-dh is crossfire you can run 2 x2's for quad fire!

The advantage of either (especially the better designed 3870x2) is Crossfire equivalent fps with a single PCIe x16 slot. The 3870x2 scales well with only the second driver release, 46% improvement over a single 3870. It might even be a viable card for Crossfire with another 3870x2 when prices drop, or with an R700. The one I have ordered is the MSI clocked at 850 instead of 825 or 775.

Will Nehelem have the Intel equivalent of Hyper Transport? For some reason, I'd thought that would be Wolfdale. I hate the way Intel pulls these voltage changes that force motherboard upgrades, but that's off topic.

I expect the killer combination will be dual core R770GPU's in Crossfire mode, or CrossfireX depending on whether they're single or dual slotted. At any rate, fast cards always get slow years down the line. I still have my AIW Radeon 9800 Pro and it was a good gaming card as well as better than the TV Wonders for video.

Heck, even that Cyrix 486DLC and Trident VGA card I found in the closet last year were great for it's day. It ran TES: Arena really well!

I just bought an Evga 8800gt, but my price range was alot lower than yours. Also, Dragon is right about the whole crossfire thing. If I were you I'd go with the ATI 3870 x2

Sorry I've been away. Thank you for all the replies and advice. The one poster, "babybudha" wanted to know what resolution I game at. I have my monitor set at 1024 X 768. My monitor is a 19-inch Sony LCD.

One item no one has addressed. What about the warranty issue? Is it only EVGA willing to back up its products with a limited lifetime warranty? I can go either way. Is there an ATI board manufacturer who offers the same warranty? I've looked around and haven't found one. Is that issue that important or should I disregard? Thanks again everyone. I appreciate the help and suggestions.

Fan speed control issues may lead me to sell my 3850 and 3870 cards and go [back] to nVidia. We'll see, I may keep one of them for a HTPC.

There is no better card.
Each has a strong point and weak points.

Go with the best one you can reasonably afford and you'll be happy either way.

That is a good question. I've had both nVidia and ATI/AMD GPU's and haven't had really any issues with either, but the warranty question is valid. I haven't gone through the warranty issues on GPU's so I can't say which way to go with that. For piece of mind the nVidia warranties offered by their manufacturers brands would be the safer way to go, but not 100% on that. Maybe somebody can let us know there warranty related experience here, so we can have an idea if the nVidia based GPU's do have a good reputation or not.
Here is what I'd get if I was able to afford $400-450 for a GPU, in order of performance: 3870x2>8800gts 512mb>8800gt>3870>3850, etc. With your lower resolution you won't be limited by the GPU, but if you upgrade to a higher resolution LCD, you'll want the added GPU power under the hood then. The other thing to consider is that I'm seeing the 3870x2 is about 10.5" long, so you might/might not have a problem fitting this into your case. I think Powercolor changed the size of their 3870x2 GPU, but still researching the size of it at this point.

Right now, the only issue I would have with ATI...the drivers. There are lots of people who have purchased the 3870x2 and found out that it takes a new beta release driver (found somewhere) to make both processors work together. Funny...a company that releases a video card and the drivers don't fully support it. That would bother me. I was a long time ATI user...and then with the release of Vista...nothing ever worked properly again. Went Nvidia a year ago...and now have an older 8800 GTS OC 640 in one machine and the new G92 8800 GTS 512 in the other. The drivers are rock stable for both XP and Vista and I use EVGA...and can find NO Better company to deal with. They have 24/7 tech support...and get the job done...the first time. I think it will come down to what you need and what kind of product support you are looking for.

As far as speed. 8800 GTS 512 has shown its ability to be as good or better than the previous GTX models. ATI has finally, after a year, come up with something that can rival the speed near the top...and the first offering has "questionable" drivers. Who rushed that thing out the door.

I am not a "Fanboy" of any particular brand, etc. I just like what works and works well. I use the resolution 1680 x 1050 and my card performs anything on any level.

WRONG.

It simply has audio pass through for HDMI. Admittedly a neat feature, but it does not process audio.

Honestly I would go with Nvidia... their drivers seem to be less of a headache.

Super high end cards like the 8800 Ultra, 3870 X2...etc only really shine at higher resolutions (ie. 1900x1200). At lower resolutions, there is not much performance difference vs 2nd highest cards (ie. 3870 and 8800GT)

From many reviews, I find that at low resolutions, the 8800GT is the best. I honestly am a Ati fanboy, but Ati cards just take to much of a performance hit when using AA filtering (which you want to use at those resolutions).

So my advice:

1) Buy a 8800GT for about $220 US.
2) Put the other $230 you have in silver stocks.
- in 2 years, your stocks will more then double (hopefully), and you will be able to buy a latest and greatest again