Zaineady,

I have merged your threads. Please do not start multiple threads with the same content

Buy Graphics Cards - Compare Video Cards - NVIDIA

That setup that jay2 posted is pretty good for the price. The only thing I would change is up the RAM to 4GB. Unless you can up the budget, that's probably about the best you're going to get. As for future-proofing, you can't really do that unless you spend more money. I just forked out a bunch of cash for my new system - and I'll still have to upgrade it next year or definitely the year after ... (can't wait for the six-core i9's!!)

As for the HD4850/70 vs 9800GTX debate, an HD4870 is a tiny bit more powerful than the 4850, and the 9800GTX is probably about on par. I had an HD4850 while my friend ran a 9800GTX ... pretty much the ONLY difference was his Geforce offering PhysX capability. Unless you're buying a high-end Geforce (GTX260+) or multiple lower cards for SLI, I wouldn't let PhysX alone sway your judgement. The HD4800 series are solid cards with awesome performance. They're generally a smidgen cheaper than the Geforce counterparts as well ...