Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

[A Black Falcon]

You used to be able to get a quite solid video card for $100-$125 (~1998), or $150 or so (2001), but now... $250, minimum, for one you won't regret spending your money on a few years later? I mean, my computer has a GeForce2 GTS (32MB), not new when I got this thing 4 1/2 years ago... it wasn't a $200 card, not even close I think ($150 at most?) and it's served pretty well for a long time... could I say that about any card in that price range these days?

Yeah, I thought not. Just like how I'll never get a card as good as the 8MB Voodoo2 for $120 or so with three full version games included (not brand new, but not ancient either...) I got in November 1998... a card on that level now (compared to the best cards of the day) would be at least twice that price. Maybe a lot more than twice.

I mean... you can get a perfectly okay computer for very cheap if you don't want to play games on it. But once you say "I want to play games", the price goes way up... and the single biggest required jump is the video card. You can sacrifice a bit of RAM or 100mhz or something, but a decent videocard is absolutely critical...