Ordinarily I wouldn’t point this out, but there seem to be a number of people looking for cheap-ish PCIe video cards, sooo…
Best Buy will have two good’uns on sale next week: a PNY 7900GS for $149 and an ATI X1950 Pro for $199. Benchmarks comparing the two are available here. There are also two printable in-store coupons you can use on Sunday or Monday: $20 off $175+ or 12% off single item; the latter coupon is only for Reward Zone members, but I think anyone can use the $20 off one.
Both of those coupons have the markdown taken from the regular (rather than sale) price. YMMV of course, but generally these days none of that coupon on top of a sale stuff gets through BB. Still decent prices. I could see going for the ATI; I think the BFG 7900GS OC at NewEgg for $150 after rebate is probably a better deal, though there’s certainly something to be said for instant gratification.
Well, I do think the XFX is a better deal after rebate, but there was a rebate on the BFG yesterday or the day before. Rebates on Newegg are extremely short lived. I swear they’ll throw rebates up on things for 75 minutes to drop their stock so that they’re not carrying more than one box full when they reorder or something.
I’ll give the RZ coupon a try tomorrow on the 1950 pro on the way home. If I can get them to take it on top of the sale price I’ll use that as a sign that I should go ahead and upgrade. If not, I’ll continue to be frugal and wish for a computer that actually ran some of the games I have now. (Oblivion either runs or is a pretty slideshow, but I can’t find a happy in-between on my system; not surprisingly given how much it thrashes top of the line systems.)