yea, 7800GS for now, or maybe the X850PE, I've never been an ATI fan, StarWars Knights had a graphics problem for a year and a half and ATI could never seem to fix it even though it worked fine on drivers more than two years old.
Remember when the first PCIe cards came out, with corresponding AGP versions? Were there any difference then? I didn't see any. AGP may be slower than PCIe, but that is why these cards have 256MB of RAM. The 30GBps data rate dwarfs even PCIe, so I doubt it makes much, if any, noticable difference unless you are going for one of those hypermemory cards, with like, 32MB RAM.
The 7800GS is a disappointment. It seams that they are trying to force people to upgrade. You can't compare the 7800GS with any other PCIe card directly, it's apples to oranges. I am going to just wait. I'm going to just live with my 9800PRO until the GFX card industry get some sense again. Right now the best deal I see is a EVA PCIe 7800GT for around $289. But that is still $100 over my price range, not to mention I'd need a new MB. And isn't it nearly time for the next generation chips?
The 5500 series sucked(or blew I guess), the 6x00 series was a lot better, but the 7x series looks real good to me, as long as you don't get a castrated one like the GS.
And one more observation:
7800GTX = 6800ultra
7800GT = 6800GT
7????? = 6600/6600GT
7800GS = 6200