
In a few select places in the world, like the USA, northern Europe, and such, $350 or 300€ may be a small sum of money (for some) to spend in a graphics card. In southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy) 300€ is more than half the legally minimum
monthly salary. And let's not get started about eastern Europe, or the really really poor countries in our earth.
BTW back in topic I am thinking on a 7950gt for my upgrade, I've found one at 170€, passive cooler (my 3 last graphic cards all had cooler troubles, one died from that so I hate ventilators!) and I still think its crazy spending that much on a card. The cheapest 8800 here is around 270€, up to >500€. I find those numbers, for a component of a
toy almost obscene.
I wish OPEN GL was more widely used for games, like IL2 Sturmovik, so we wouldnt have to worry about a single company decisions so as when to upgrade. Open standards and freedom, vs. pure business interests. I have a windows computer just to play games, and I hate needing XP just for that purpose. I hope to have some years before vista-only games show up, that's a train I dont want to take.
I too have my right to a nightly forum rant don't I?