Pentium 4 vs. AMD 64

[grandgnu]

Mine chugged a bit on the BF2 demo which I modded to have 32 bots running around.

Definetely the "sweet spot" right now is the 6800GT 256MB version, once the price drops a tad more (I try to get my stuff on Ebay for savings of $25-$100 off retail)

Buying the 6600GT right now isn't worth it, given it only has 128MB of RAM. And the difference in performance between a 6800 Ultra or 7800 card isn't all that big compared with the 6800GT. Especially when you consider the ability to toss in a 2nd 6800GT in the future if you go with an SLI board.

The status quo gamer isn't going to have the top of the line stuff anyway, so most games are going to be playable on this "lesser" hardware for awhile.

Got plenty of gaming out of my 9700 Pro, still does Rome Total War with graphics cranked just fine, although that game is more CPU limited for larger battles (starts to chug around 6,000+ troops on screen)