Hey there,
Long time lurker, just thought I'd chime in.
Don't feel bad spending the money. You only have to do it once a year
If it's your first major purchase for a video card on the bleeding edge, take some solace in the fact that these cards are well ahead of the value trend introduced by the geforce 2,3,4 era.
Just a year ago, the same money definatly wouldn't put you at twice the performance of the corresponding previous generation. Heck, I spent 450 dollars on an Orchid Righteous 3d back in the day, and ok... that's a little different, there was nothing to compare it to... but when I bought the voodoo2 for 399.00, you can bet... no wait it was double the performance... ok wait... when I bought a second voodoo2, it wasn't... oh wait it was again. Okay.. shit.
Well the point is, that golden age of doubling your performance over the last generation is back... for at least one product cycle. I guess we have to wait for the r500, and geforce renegade ultra tiger dragon to be sure.
Second point, Half Life 2 is wicked awesome. (ps buy the ATI)
(if you can still find the vivo edition x800 pro, do some research, you can get mucho gains with just a little tweaking)
/end fanboy rant.
ev