if you have room in your case, you could get a GeForce 9600GT Superclocked : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130328

or, if you want to spend a little over 200, you can get the card I have : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130317

that bad boy will destroy any game you throw at it in max settings without a doubt.

8800 GT 512 MB if you can find one for your budget.

If not, then 9600 will be the best choice.

edit: 8800 GTSes with 320 or 640 MB ram are older versions which are slower than 8800 GT. The new GTSes have 512 MB ram are faster than the GT.

well, my 640mb GTS completely blows games like crysis and call of duty 4 out of the water, and gives me no lag whatsoever.

I fully agree with verne, not only is the 8800 GT faster than the 320&640 versions of the GTS, but cheaper. However, crysis still chops on the highest end computers, even the 9800 slows to a crawl when it hits the framebuffer limit. I have a 6000+, 4gb ram, and two 8800 GTs and still cannot run crysis well in very high or in dx10. I don't think you can claim to have "blown a game" out of the water graphics-wise if you aren't even running it in max settings.

BTW smoothy, you should put your video card in your computer stats, imo

Well EVGA is having a deal on their 8800GT's.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318
$175 after rebate is damn good for an 8800GT. Not to mention EVGA is hailed as the best among consumers for their good quality. Just look at the reviews on there and everywhere else.

I dunno if the Zotac is worth the extra $25. It's overclocked an extra 100mhz to 700, but that will only give you better results in a stress test. I'd say you would only gain about 3 FPS in games like Crysis. This also means it's gonna run a little bit hotter, so keep that in mind.

you cannot judge a card just by it's clock speeds and memory speeds, you can easily overclock any card to a higher speed.

like, for instance I run my 8800gts at 750/1015, so it's like it's so difficult ( I have an amd 5000+ black edition overclocked to 3.5 stable, and 4gb of OCZ sli ram at 4-4-4-12 )

but, I run crysis in high, who cares about very high, at 1680x1050 4x AA directx 10 blah blah blah

just, go with whatever you feel is worth the money is all I can say.

I would definitely vouch for EVGA. In a world where practically every computer component seems to be the quality of some cheap Asian knockoff (with Engrish ridden manuals to boot), EVGA seems to spare no expense of quality of packaging, warranty, and support!!!

Sorry that sounds like a PAID ADVERT but really, they are excellent.

Also I don't believe Smoothly Oakland. I have a very similar PC specs wise (2GB RAM less than him but a better processor). I have a 8800 GTX, which is notably faster than the 8800 GTS, and I still get frame drops. Crysis runs at 1680x1050, no AA, DX9, with all high settings at a FAIRLY constant 30 FPS, with drops to mid 20s and some rises to 35-40. Sure, you can run just about anything at high, but don't expect to "blow" everything out of the water. New games can certainly still lag on higher end cards.

So long as you're not expecting to set any and every game to MAXIMUM and get 60 FPS constantly, you'll be OK.

Yeah don't judge a card based on clock speeds. I have a BFG 8800GT overclocked edition, but that was the only version out at the time. They also have a overclocked 2 edition, which is stupid and pointless. Don't spend the extra $25 for a superclocked edition of a card when you can overclock it yourself to the same speed. And overclocking takes like 20 seconds so yeah.

By the way your processor has almost nothing to do with games like Crysis. There is literally almost no difference in FPS if you're running the same graphics card, but a different processor. I mean I have a Q6600, and Crysis is a game that actually benefits from a quad core processor, yet there is almost no difference in the FPS. Anyway, with a few tweaks, I'm able to run the game at all very high, 1440x900 res, no AA.
Don't even try putting 2xAA on Crysis your FPS will plummet.

By the way your processor has almost nothing to do with games like Crysis. There is literally almost no difference in FPS if you're running the same graphics card, but a different processor. I mean I have a Q6600, and Crysis is a game that actually benefits from a quad core processor, yet there is almost no difference in the FPS. Anyway, with a few tweaks, I'm able to run the game at all very high, 1440x900 res, no AA.
Don't even try putting 2xAA on Crysis your FPS will plummet.

It does, but only insofar as a weak CPU with a faster videocard is a surefire way to bottleneck your system.

This has all been very helpful; I think I'm going to go with neophyte's suggestion. Thanks a lot.

I mainly play CoD4, TF2, and maybe a little WoW for the time being, it would be nice to be able to play CoD4 at a decent resolution, and it looks like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318 is perfect. The price is also amazing.

Again, thanks a bunch.

That's a great deal right there. And EVGA gives lifetime warranties on all their cards. I was able to sell my two old 7600 GTs to a friend because of that warranty (both EVGA). Just one 8800 will allow you to play COD4 in some of the higest resolutions, not to mention it will make TF2 and WoW really fly.

I know mobos with PCI-E 2.0 slots will accept regular PCI-E cards.. but I'm not actually sure if PCI-E 2.0 cards will go in a regular PCI-E slot? Logic would say no since they are stated as PCI-E 2.0. Not sure though! I'd double check your mobo and make sure what PCI-E slots you have. Everest is a great little program for grabbing info like this if you're unsure (I'll leave googlins and cracks to you).

My 8800 GTX is about 11 inches long, which is pretty ridiculous. I did measurements prior to my build and it DOES just barely fit but most non-fulltower cases that aren't specifically designed for gaming components will have trouble. I'm not sure about the 512 GT but I'd make sure you've got 10-11 inches of length.

A bit of a stupid question here, PCI Express 2, do I need a specific kind of motherboard for that? I know I have a PCI express slot...

Most likely you have a PCI-E 2.0 slot. The card will work either way, but just to be safe you could tell us your motherboard name.

As for the length, it's pretty damn long. I mean when I took mine out of the box I seriously didn't think it could fit.
Here are some 3 month old images of my card:

That was an older motherboard I was using. It was one of those intel brands that came with the retail bundle. It was an m-atx motherboard by the way. I couldn't find a picture of my whole case with it inside unfortunately.
But even if you have a case that was pretty standard, you should be fine. I've seen people stick these cards in with their old Compaq cases. It shouldn't be a problem.

Okay I just checked it out. It's 16x, so you're fine.
I'm almost 100% sure you're case will fit the card as well. I've almost never heard of a case where somebody couldn't fit their card in.