Wow it surprises me how long I went without paying over $300.
My TNT2 16MB was $160
Gave it to a friend along with 50$ so he could turn it into a TNT 32MB version.
I then Paid $280 For a Geforce2 GTS from Asus (the Deluxe one)
Then I paid $250 to friend for what I believe was a 5 fingered Hercules Prophet II (the Geforce2 Ultra which was $500 at the time)
I then traided in a strait swap the Geforce2 Ultra for a Radeon 8500DV for tuner usage.
Wonce it started to go bad I found my dads reciept and took it to BB, after proving that it was covered for 3 years I traided in a Broken covered under PSP GameCube (which I bought for 199) and the 8500DV (which was baught for 299) and Got the 9800XT for like $50.
Then I built a computer from scratch and went all out. I bought a BFG 7800GTX ($490) a 4400+ ($550) and two gigs of ram (corsair XMS) along with a bunch of other toys.
So From the TNT 32MB till the 8500 I stayed near the top in performance and Jumped back up with the 9800XT, with out ever paying more then $300 for a video card. But unlike people around here think The top end video card has been since the Geforce DDR 64MB, been about $500 anyways I always stayed just a step down or so but the parts were their for that price. After ininflation its about $580, which just with this last gen has it jumped up to $600-$650. Condisdering that the Lowest end PII launched at a price of $900 I think every thing is leveling out. Now manufacturers can go all out and build those $4k-$5K machines, and everyone else can feel like they have SRT4 to their Vipers, Close enough and for a fraction of the price.