ok well that narrows it to 4830 and the 4670.

The difference (in price) between the 4830 and the 4850 is not enough to justify buying the former.

The 4670 is good too.

It's like a $30-40 difference. Since the 4830 just came out, it's not as common to see it heavily discounted/rebated, so typically around $100. If you can find a 4850 in the discounted neighborhood of $120, it's a steal at that price.

Currently the lowest price for the 4850 on NewEgg is $140 with discount/rebate for the asus and sapphire.
Lowest price for 4830 is $110 w/ rebate for PowerColor
4670 goes as low as $70 w/ rebate for the Asus

Pretty broad range, but if you overlook the 4670, which I haven't seen any benchmarks for, you're not paying a huge premium for the 4850 over the 4830.

$20 difference wouldn't be an issue. $30 difference is really up to buyer want/need.

Just get the 9800GT, it will do everything you need it to for now, and then if you do get a larger monitor you dont have to worry about getting another video card.

i just remembered I have a spare video card, a XFX geforce 8600. Considering my monitor resolution 1280X1024 like I said before, would an 8600 be good enough on that resolution?

the ATI you won't have to upgrade later and its more bang for the buck.

It would help greatly to know exactly which games are being played. CPU, memory, etc. would also be helpful in determining real world performance for said games.

8600GT is fine for most games at 1280x1024.

You may not be running all settings on max, but if budget is a concern, that's not always going to happen anyway.

If you don't need to upgrade today, then there is no need to be shopping for cards and gauging performance, because by the time you do need to upgrade, prices will have changed and new options will be on the table.

My advice: run the games you want to play with the 8600GT, and if you're satisfied with the performance, you can put upgrading cards in the back of your head until you finally run into that one game you really like that is rendered unplayable (low frame rate, low effects) due to the constraints of your system. You have more leeway since you're playing at a relatively low resolution.

why not get an 4850 X2?

$$$

I'm under the impression he doesn't necessarily have a lot of it to throw away on a video card(s).

Anyway, not all games take full advantage of Crossfire, so... not necessarily the best solution for the average PC gamer.

For most games, I couldn't tell the difference between a 4870 512MB and a 4870x2 2GB when running at the same resolution, not that I wouldn't recommend the 4870x2 anyway if you want the current fastest single card.

A complete waste of power at his resolution.  It's like using a train to pull a mobile home.