ATi's latest cards wipe nVidia in all most all games (Battlefield is the only one that it does fairly excellent, but is just a few fps off of nVidia's card). You're still getting a peice of hardware with that 9800Pro. 9800Pro is still top of the line. (The XT/X800XT Pro and the 5950/6800Ultra cards are flagship cards, as in, the company's greatest demo cards, not worth the money IMO. Just get the basic versions, replace stock cooling and flash the bios and you get your self a 9800XT/5950) As for AMD vs Intel, I prefer AMD because their cheaper and easier to OC(and unlocked to OC in the first place), only drawback is their crap stock cooling. Intel has been great until they locked their CPU's from getting OC'd in 1998 to now. If your going to get an intel cpu in the near future, get a cpu from the Northwood line. Their unlocked and better then an Intel Genuin.