3000$? Nah man lol, and that's the price you can buy with like a car (well, old, of course - probably good price for new drivers at young age), it all should be like around from 1 grand to 2.5 or 2.
It just shouldnt be higher on anyone's list "to buy" than nVidia, who has been king since 3DFX died with the Voodoo 3. Actually ATI was ahead of the pack for about a 6 month period in there, but then fell back to 2nd.
^^ yeah everyone was sayin that shit, i remeber that... but im satisfied with my nVidia Geforce 4200 128MB.... does the job for me, im on a budget ya dig?