Please recommend a graphics solution

Hi everyone at TG forumz, I have been following toms hardware for over a year now and need help deciding on a graphics card. My absolute limit is about $280, since i am in Pakistan and the prices are somewhat higher than than in the American market.

I am running
P4 3.0 Ghz with HT
Asus P5RD1-V motherboard
2x 512mb DDR PC3200 Kingston value ram
17 inch Acer AL1711 lcd monitor.

I am looking for something that will allow me to play games at 1280x1024 resolution at maximum settings if possible. I have considered a MSI 7950 GT but would like your opinion on this, I would appreciate if you can explain which company is better since most retailers here are of the view that MSI and Leadtek are better than Sapphire..

i was thinking about that one but i dont think i can get connect3d here, only MSI, leadtek, sapphire, asus, nvidia and Ati

another thing i want is that for the stock cooler of the graphics to perform well enough on its own cause as you can see my pc does not have a decent cooling system or any decent system for that matter

Here in the US, we can get the X1900XT pretty cheap... cheaper than the 7950GT.... If that is the case in Pakistan, get that one... It performs better... Any brand should be almost the same, only the warranties differ in most cases, and some might be overclocked. I would get the cheapest one...

8O

well they are usually 20 or so bucks higher than their American counterparts but the only manufacturers available here are MSI, Leadtek, Winfast, ATi, Nvidia and Asus give or take a few.
what my main concern is that if i buy a good card but one that doesnt come with a good stock cooler, then i wont be able to buy additional coolers/heatsinks cause you cant get those here

thanks, now i will just buy a x1950xt if i can find it