ATI is where its at right now. NVidia is more expensive and slower comparatively. I'd shy away from them at the moment.
Best card for your price range - that's a tricky one. Anandtech has an article on the 4870, though it is slightly more than you may want to spend (You can get it maybe for what? $250?) One of the overclocked 4850's might be closer to what you are looking for though.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415
-S
Quote:
The Radeon HD 4870 1GB: The Card to Get
With the launch of the Radeon HD 4870, AMD showed us that they are not only still in the game, but they are back. Their hardware either out performed or was on par with NVIDIA hardware priced significantly higher. As a result, NVIDIA was forced to significantly adjust their prices downward to remain competitive. And, currently, they are competitive in terms of pricing and performance
But in this business competitive isn't always good enough. AMD came out of the gate swinging for a knock out. And they did a good job of winning a significant amount of mindshare. They built a good product and priced it very aggressively at launch. While our concern is the current state of things, and our recommendation will be for the part that gives our reader the best value, that's not how every graphics card enthusiast sees it. The things companies do (like initially selling their hardware at way too high a price) can significantly affect the position of some enthusiasts....
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