this list is based purely on performance as it is up to the buyer on here to check out prices and actual real world performance. The bottom line is this guide serves to deliver a rough guide on which card has overall best performance, at the most common resolutions, with the most up-to date games. Since this is what new gamers or someone who wants a new card will be very interested to know.
Now on to the debate where the new cards should be. Take a look at the performance recap on tomshardware.
Performance Recap - Tom's Hardware : Nvidia GeForce GTX 260/280 Review
If you look the GTX 280 comes out on top ever so slightly followed by the 9800gx2 and then the GTX 260, the 3870x2, the 8800 ultra, and finally the 9800gtx.
This is at the 1900x1200 resolution. At the 2560x1600 resolution the line-up is slighlty changed with the ultra above the 3870x2. However since 1900x1200 (22-24" wide) is a much more common resolution than the 2560x1600 that's the one we should be going to.
So at a request i would like to have the line-up go
GTX 280
9800GX2
GTX 260
HD3870x2
8800 Ultra
9800GTX
and then the rest is fine.
Thanks guys and i believe this should be up to date. I expect that the gtx 260 will come out over the 9800gx2 once newer games are released showing it beating it. However once again this list is based on the newest and most popular games still played today(especially and mainly the top tier cards). Of coarse that is Crysis, GRID, Mass Effect which all use newer coding obviously as you can tell becuase they utilize the GTX cards better. However we cannot forgot CoD4, UT3, AoC, and other highly played games today becuase they still are very graphical games that are heavily played.
Once again thanks