Video Card - Best Bang per Buck

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

I'm still running an Nvidia 9800GT in my main machine these days, but have been considering a refresh. It's been a little quirky recently (a couple blue screens attributed to it) and that sort of disconcerting.

As I've been out of PC gaming business for the past year, I haven't really been paying much attention to the video card business. I'm looking for a low-mid range card (<$200) that has pretty good thermals. I'm not really stuck on either Nvidia or AMD as I've had good luck with both of them.

So what the best bang for my buck? I assume that there is at least something with better specs that a 9800GT. If there isn't any thing that's really better out than that at the low price point, I might just through one of the low-end cards in there as a stop gap. Any input would be appreciated.

Doc

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

Do you have the capabilities of running sli? If so then sli-d gtx9800's might not be that bad.

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

No, I don't have an SLI board. It has only a single PCIe 16x slot. I also will need to replace my current card as I believe its best days are behind it now.

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130591

This card looks great for the price I think.

[LA_MERC_YellowDog]

I'm running a GTX 470 and am pleased with it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130550

This one is pushing your limit but would be a good card :)

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

I finally replaced the card, but I didn't have the budget to spend very much. I stuck a HD5770 in there that I found on sale (<$100). It seemed to run L4D2 pretty well (which is an improvement), but I don't think it will push BF3. At a minimum, hopefully the reboots will go away.