[Roanon]

I still disagree.
Of course, cheapest buy is not a good buy. But most of the features of high-end cards are not even used by a single piece of software at the time when you buy them. The best card is the one just below the high level, where reasonable prices rule. Paying double or triple the price for a few gimmicks more does not give you value for money. By the time you really need all these cool features of the high-end card, it will cost half or less - and they you can still buy it with the money you saved when buying a cheaper card firsthand. And still have money left over.

I just bought a GeForce FX5900 for less than 200€. I bet it will be good for at least 1 year, when I can buy a better card than what currently costs 500€ for around 200€ again, keeping me going for another year. Paying 500€ now would maybe give me one and a half year till I need to change, do that 2 times and you pay 1000€ for roughly the same performance over 3 years than with my schedule buying 3 cards for a total of 600€.

Yes, you need to update more often if you do not buy high end. Still it is cheaper. The prices for high end cards are just too ridiculous, there is absolutely no value for money. Do tell me for which game you absolutely need a card for more than 400$ - and please no games "scheduled to be released next month" that will beta around next year.