7950 GT equivilant

[shadowbreaker513]

A spark due to static in the air from a thunderstorm burned the connections off of my brand new 7950GT. Barring that evga will accept the second rma from me in 2 months (this card was sent to me as a replacement for my 7900 GT KO that burnt up like most of the early 7900 gt cards), I'm going to have to buy a new video card. I have no idea how the cards stack up, and where my card is in relation to this current generation of cards. I'm looking for something that is dx10 compatible as there is no reason to get a card without it if I'm buying one now. Also I'd rather not get a top of the line $500-600+ card, as my resolutions never get too high as my moniter is 1280x1024. I figure I could get something more in the mid-range, and then after I get a job this summer (basically replacing everything atm with my graduation money) I could buy a second card and toss it in and run it SLI. Rest of my specs will be

Intel Core 2 Duo 6420 2.13Ghz (plan to overclock once I get this damn system stable)
4x1GB Mushkin eXtreme Performance
EVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
74GB WD Raptor
Onboard sound atm, seeing how it sounds before I jump on a sound card
OCZ Modstream 520w

I'm completely out of the loop on video cards, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[defaultluser]

If 1280x1024 is your top resolution, you can stick with the 8800 GTS 320Mb card. They retail for the same as you paid for your 7900 GT: under $300.

 

[shadowbreaker513]

Alright, thanks, and in a stroke of interesting luck, best buy sells the overclocked BFG card actually CHEAPER than it is on newegg. After tax it comes out to be equal, but I don't have to wait until the middle of next week for it to get here, and it's easier than newegg to take back if it breaks. I'll head on out there tomorrow to pick one up if things don't go so well with the evga rma department tonight.