As you may recall, I've been watching the prices on video cards for some time, and there has started to be some downward movement.

That awesome BFG 7800 GS AGP that Jargonaut told us about a while back, has actually fallen in price by about $45, but is still way out of my price range at $349 Cdn. It will be a while longer that I will have to hold out if this is the card to buy.

Getting closer to the kind of price I want to pay is the ATI Radeon X1600 Pro AGP that features 512 MB RAM v.s. the BFG's 256.
One wonders if double the video ram really makes that much difference.

I did see the ATI product on sale at Best Buy's sister stores for $199.00 Cdn recently, but I just couldn't swing it that month. The refurbished X800 XL's are on sale at ATI's clearance centre again, for only $139 Cdn, but I'm thinking I will hold out for the X1600 or the BFG 7800.

There is cetainly no rush on this, I've waited this long, I can wait a while longer for the prices to drop some more. But which card is better, or should I say, the better value?

I've been waiting forever to build out a new PC but this one just keeps going and going. I'll just keep waiting and waiting. Consider this. Had I been inpatient as usual, I'd have already bought a new one about three times over. Since I like nice PC's it may be safe to say that I have saved about three thousand by now by not getting a new one.

I'll keep waiting. I think you should go for it though but let me ask, is there really a need? What is your current card again?

I can only say that BFG are as good as their word when it comes to their lifetime warantee.
I had a new card in my system in less than a week with little phone talk.
Plus, I like the digital vibrance setting on Nvidia cards. Makes the colors sharper and crisper than ATi.
Still, both make great cards so you can't loose. Just be careful cause they will not be making AGP cards much longer.