need some purchasing advice

OK, I ordered a 8800gt from dell thats supposed to ship Dec 10, the cost was 225 with tax and free shipping. Do you guys think the 8800gt will go down below 225 after Christmas? I know I'll be getting a few gift cards but I don't want to spend them on a 250+ 8800gt when I got one ordered for 225. I want to start gaming more on my pc but I can't guarantee I'll have alot of time to justify 200+ on a video card. Also, I should note that I currently have a hd2600pro. Would I see a big difference in real world performance from the hd2600 to the 8800gt. Thanks

Plus that's not too harsh of a price difference for the performance that u'll get... That's like what? 7-8 fast food meals...? Just eat less and play more for a month and u'll be fine

Chipset HD 2600 PRO

process (Die size) 0,065 µ
transistor count 390 Mio.
memory options 512 MB
Core frequency 600
Memory frequency (eff.) 1000
steam processors 120
Memory Bus (bit) 128
memory type DDR2
data bus AGP 4x, 8x
RAMDAC 2x400MHz


GeForce 8500 GT runs at 450 MHz and accesses its 256 MB DDR2 memory at 800 MHz (400 MHz transferring two data per clock cycle) thru a 128-bit interface, so it can access its memory at a maximum transfer rate of 12.8 GB/s.

It has only 16 shader processors running at 900 MHz (GeForce 8600 GT and GTS has 32 shader processors).


That help ya?!

It's actually the 512mb version from MSI, I ordered it from dell and its supposed to ship on 12/10. I noticed some people on ebay are trying to sell theirs with the exact ship date as mine. As far as the amperage I have a 380W sparkle with 2 12v rails 1 at 18A and the other at 16A. Think that will work? If not, I know I'm getting a newegg giftcard for christmas, I might be buying that antec earthwatts 500 I've been wanting.