Honestly the best bang for buck and the best mid range card out there is the GTX 260. Best card you are going to find for the 200~ range. I feel your pain about the 8800. I had an 8800GTS and the 260 blows it away. Now I'm not running 1080p (1680x1050, first monitor to be cheap at large LCD sizes back in the day), but it's close, and I'm running most everything max settings at 100+ FPS that I own. Even Aion (graphically intense MMO) has absolutely no hiccups maxed AA max Graphics with 50 + ppl on screen in dungeon raids.
The Halo francise is the most overrated bland game to ever hit the console market. It provides a bad name to all FPS that even showed effort at creating an original entertaining plot.
I probably have more ps3 games than you :/
