I am well pleased, both with the nvidia card and the NV version. BTW, if you compare the raw throughput of various nvidia cards you may be surprised at the 9x series vs the 8x series
http://www.nvidia.com/HelpMeChoose/fx/HelpMeChoose.asp and value for money. You may get more of a bargain than some think. Just ensure you get one with VP2/VP3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PureVid..._.28HD.29_GPUs