Both ATI and Nvidia are at the top of their game, so unless you have a personal preference for each, you can go either way.

As for the cards you listed, you can dismiss the 1950XTX and 7900GTX since those are DX9 cards, and you want something that's more future proof (hence, a DX10 card).

Both the 2900XT and the 8800GTS are solid performers, but an even better card would be the 8800GT, Nvidia's latest offering, which is faster than the 8800GTS and cheaper. RIght now they hover around $300.

EDIT: You should also keep an eye for the latest ATI cards, the 3870 and 3850. They are not as fast as the 8800GT, but their price is lower, and they are still excellent performers.

For this moment my advice is ATI...its simply cheaper, i have 2900 xt and the performance is way better than Nvidia 8800 gts, and its comming near 8800 gtx in benchmarks...but if you have an opurtunity to get 8800 gt PCI 2.0 go for it my friend

I don't know much about ATi cards, but personally I perfer Nvidia. If you have the money, I would recommend Nvidia 8800GT, if not, go for 8600GT. You can play most of the games at high settings with these cards.

I am glad that you finaly start making BLOGS, my old friend

nvidia are better but more expensive, ati has many models to choose from

I see that you are online, my friend....did you bought a graphic card already?

hi guys, thanks for ur comments. i bought an ATI 3870.

thats a good graphics card, I bought a 7900gtx 2 years ago and it still rocks. I can max everygame out there incuding gears of war and UT3, only crysis I have to play in high without AA. I play everything in 1680:1050

I prefer ATI Radeon HD 4800 (which im saving up on), works great on COD4.