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A couple clarifications about my needs.

I do play video games but I have a PS3 and XBOX 360 for that. I honestly believe that I have never played a game on my PC before so I do not so it happening anytime soon. I encode videos a few times a week and actually do not really even watch movies on the PC. About once a month I will watch a movie on my PC instead of on the plasma. I do not have a blu-ray burner yet but was expecting to pick one up sometime in the near future whenever the prices dip to around the $100 mark. I was pretty much just looking for the card that was going to give me the best picture quality, best performance in Vista and be able to run 1900x1200 with all the eye candy turned on. I was also having a hard time deciding on if I needed a 512MB instead of 256MB card. But for my needs/usage, I should not need the 512MB correct?

I should also add that I picked up the EVGA 8600GTS card for $120 off of an online retailer. It would be somewhat of a hassle to return the card. However, if the 3850 will perform better in the three categories listed above it would be worth it.

1. Encoding videos has nothing to do with the video card. Ati does offer an encoding app you can download, but it isn't hardware accelerated, it's just software. It'll do the same job any encoder will.

2. Blu-ray & HD-DVD will look pretty much identical on the 8600 GTS or 3850 on windows Vista. The 3850 probably has a little bit better noise reduction.
(Anecdotally, if you're using XP, it will look a lot better on a radeon because the current Geforce drivers do not support HD video post-processing on XP)

3. 512mb is needed in games if you want to use ultra texture settings, makes no difference in non-gaming apps (except high-end CAD maybe)

Hope that helps.

Wow, did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed? The 3850 would obviously be better than a 8600gts, but the guy doesn't game, so anything over a $50 card would just be extra $ out of his pocket. He could even use the onboard GPU (if he had one). I'd take the 8600gts back and just use the $ for a cheaper card or use his onboard GPU.

Even if the OP decided to game in the future, the 3850 will probably "suck" then, same as the 8600GTS "sucks" now. Better to do what lunyone said above, and shell out the cash for a gaming card when he actually needs it!

Actually the HD3850 has another advantage is it can output sound over HDMI if he'll ever buy a blu-ray drive and a new LCD panel with HDMI support. With 8600 you have to use another cable for sound.

But from what he said in his last post. I think just living with his onboard video is the best option and buying whatever best at the time he'll buy a blu-ray or hd dvd drive or even a hybrid and decide to use the computer as a HTPC.

yeah The op should just get a better card when he needs one.
PS3, Xbox 360, Plasma....

Obviously the OP isn't a low budget gamer.