Question for X1950XT owners

Hello, everyone!

I'm planning to build a system early - mid September for primary
college use and gaming on the side. I'm on a budget of $2000 max (need
all components and peripherals including monitor), but it would also be
nice to limit the total cost as much as I can so I can afford some good
upgrades in the future. Similar to other gaming builds, the graphics
card is what's going to kill me. I plan on building a system with
Q6600, x38/P35, 4GB DDR2 1066, sound card, Vista 64-bit, 22" WS LCD,
Logitech G5, etc...

I'm leaning towards either an 8800 GTX or X1950XT for the video
card... I think my options are to either pick up the 8800 GTX and
upgrade in a year at the earliest or get the X1950XT and pick up the
high range card when it comes to the market at the end of the year. If
I get the X1950XT how does it perform on games such as Fear, Stalker,
HL2, Oblivion, Doom 3, Quake 4, etc... Is there anything it can't
handle? I plan on playing Crysis and other main releases as they come
and the GTX seems a bit iffy for the future, IMO. Also, would the 256MB
version of the XT suffice for 1650 x 1050 or do I have to go for the
512 version?

On a side note, is the x38 chipset going to be released in time for
mid-Sept? Is it worth it to get x38 or should I be fine with P35 + new
line of PCI-e 2.0 cards?

Thanks!

My opinion is that you should buy the best card you can - the 8800GTS is a better card in DX9 than the X1950XT (about 50%), plus it can run DX10. Crytek are reported as saying that any 8800 will run Crysis pretty well:

http://www.computerandvideogames.c [...] ?id=166004

I'd buy an 8800 now, then upgrade again next summer.

Ive got a XT 512MB running all my games on MAX with a res of 1680x1050. Games that I run on max with an FPS over 21:

Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2142
Rainbow 6 Vegas
Test Drive Unlimited
Hitman Bloody Money

when u say MAX do you mean abasolute max i.e 16x aa