I'm building a new rig and will be ordering parts by the end of the week. I need a video card but can't decide which to buy. I don't want to spend a lot on a card because I consider the current offerings old tech. I want to buy a new card next year when NVidia and ATI finally release their next generation cards.

I would buy an 8800GT but because of limited availability prices are high and I'd probably have to wait to receive the card. The HD3850 and HD3870 are more reasonable at $176 and $219 respectively but performance is sub-par and I'm guessing that new faster cards are just around the corner. I'd also prefer to upgrade from NVidia -> NVidia or ATI -> ATI to limit driver issues in the future (has anyone experienced problems driver issues when upgrading from one brand to the other??)

That leaves me with lower performing cards such as the 8600GT and previous generation cards that I can get for ~100 or less. The problem here is that I'll have a new 24" monitor and I don't know that those cards would be able to drive a resolution of 1920x1200 not to mention gaming. I currently don't do a lot of gaming (my current rig doesn't have the horsepower). I would eventually like to play Crysis, Bio Shock, etc. but probably not until I upgrade my video card. However, I would like to play some RTS games in the meantime.

So, that's my dilema. What should I do?

TIA for your help.

get what fits you best

You could get a crossfire board (which are relatively cheap especially for what you get) and run two 3850s or 3870s and crossfire really shines in 1920 and above resolution.. that should get you more power than an 8800GT and the visual quality of good ATi cards... if you haven't seen yet here ya go
3870 vs 8800GT in Crysis
http://iax-tech.com/video/3870/38704.htm

at that kind of resolutions, i wouldn't bother with an 8800gt. i'd go straight to the gtx, unless you want to overclock the gt. i think that's the thing that puts ati out of your usability.

I 'd prefer to go with an NVidia card because there seems to be nothing but bad news coming from the AMD/ATI camp lately and I'm not confident that their next-gen cards will be much better. However, I will have an X38 board and unless SLI finds its way to that platform (hopeful thinking), perhaps I should go with ATI. I just need something relatively inexpensive that'll get me through to Q1 or possibly Q2 so that I can upgrade the card.

Has anyone heard of the "step-up" program? Can someone tell me what it is?

Really??? Show me another card that performs as well them for the price.

Go with the 3850 or 3870. They have great priceerformance.