It may seem like a waste of money, but what the hell. What would be your top of the range pick on graphics card today ... and tomorrow? I mean, would you buy a 8800GTX or some ATI today or wait for an upcoming release of newer cards? Basically, I want the top video card and can wait a little bit with the purchase.

Well, 8800Ultra is the best card, but it's a big waste of money.

The 8800GTX is basically the same card for a lot cheaper. I say go for the 8800GTX.

I agree with prozac, the newer to be released cards, the 2950 or the 8900, are at this point just talked about, to be released who knows when cards. The GTX is the way to go for the top card now

it really depend of you, how is your games holding up to you? are you sick of old games and ready to step up?? if you cant wait to see the real dx10 games holding up the current top cards then buy a card that is right for you. 8800s, gts320 if you are gaming at lower resolution and 8800gts640 to 8800gtx for higher resolution. and yes skip the ati-amd cards for now.

I see. So, ATI is not the winner right now and won't be for some time to come. And what is the specific reason on why Ultra is not worth it? Very little increase in performance and a big one in price? Or it may have its flaws?

You just named the two flaws. Too much cost and too lttle performance.

save the extra 200$ from ultra and get gtx. use the 200$ for 2nd gen dx10 cards. you'll be glad you did.

I see. I'm not the kind of a stuborn customer who wants "The best of the best". I'm ready to pay for what is good and what is worth the price. Then 8800GTX it shall be, by no means a "lame choice" Thank you guys for your quick response, appreciate it.

Anytime, and I think youll be quite happy with your purchase, one thing tho, make sure you have enough room in your case for the GTX, its a huge card. Hope it works

It costs significantly more than the GTX, and offers minimal performance increase.

If you can wait, like you are thinking "I would maybe like to have something a little better maybe", but I can live without it right now, then wait. Hardware always gets better-cheaper over time.
If you cannot wait, and just have to have the best there is RIGHT NOW.
Get an 8800gtx
The 8800Ultra is the very best right now, but for $900+US, it's an awfully expensive, very small step over the 8800gtx.

Thank you.

For the second part of the question, what brand should I buy? There's a wide selection and the prices differ quite a bit as well. I'm new to NVidia cards, so I can't really choose.

Also, there is this one brand that offers the card already OC'd (from 575MHz to 626MHz) for the same (similar) price, is it worth it? I'm going to watercool it at any rate and can do the OC'ing myself, so should I go for the basic stats or OC'ed ones are always better?

Anyone? How important is the brand? EVGA as usually the most pricey.

generally if it has a good warranty, just go for the cheapest option.

You said your not in a hurry for a new card, then WAIT. The new cards coming out on the market will use 65 nm cores. That means they wont consume as much power and produce much less heat. They will also be faster then todays 8800gtx ultra and 2900xt cards. And thats worth waiting for, specially since there are no dx10 games released yet.