New video card recommendation, questions

[noping]

I've been lurking around for a while, finally decided to sign up for the forum as I'm torn over what to pick up (if anything) at the moment, especially since my sixth (seventh?) 7900GT KO died. (Shortened version of a really funny story - I bought a N563/CO back in March, ended up RMA'ing a bunch due to severe artifacting/damage by UPS until they finally ended up sending me a working "reloaded" N584/KO with the Infineon memory and non-sucky cooler in mid-August. A capacitor fell off the latest card the other day, so back it goes.)

Questions:
1a. 7900GTO as a quick replacement (GT goes into an older system) - good/bad idea, given that they use the old Samsung memory?
1b. BFG, XFX or stick with eVGA?
2a. X1900XT as a replacement - good/bad idea?
2b. Do manufacturers like Sapphire care if you replace the stock heatsink or give the card a mild OC? (eVGA allows you to do this under warranty)
3. Have ATI's Linux drivers improved at all?
4. I'm not even sure if I want another NVIDIA card; this last experience has left me in a foul mood. How is the quality of the hardware over in ATI-land?
5. G80/R600 right around the corner (see below)

Games I play on my system, at 1280x1024:
Guild Wars (a lot, not very graphics intensive)
Oblivion (not as much)

I'm thinking that perhaps I should just stick with the replacement 7900GT that eVGA will be sending out next week (no, they don't do cross-shipping anymore it seems) and wait until the product refreshes for G80/R600 come out sometime next year?

 

[Elfear]

I'll do my best here.

1) 7900GTO is a pretty decent card, especially for the $$. I wouldn't plaon on overclocking it much though if other users experience means much. I've heard mostly good things about EVGA but I don't know much about them except that they supposedly cover overclocking and have a lifetime warranty.

2) I have been very pleased with the X1900XTs I've used. I switched from two 7800GTs@550/1300 to an X1900XT@750/875 and I was very pleased. AFAIK, EVGA is the only board partner who covers overclocking.

3) I've heard they've improved but are still not up to par with Nvidia's. Hopefully a Linux guru will chime in about this.

4) Both companies make some great products but this round I'd say ATI has the better products. This is just my opinion of course but I do have some experience with both manufactures (I've owned multiple cards from the last two generations from both ATI and Nvidia).

5) G80 should be out in November if rumor holds true. Probably toward the latter half and will cost ~$650 (also according to rumor). R600 will supposedly come out in January. It's up to you how long you want to wait and if it's worth the money at that time.

Guild Wars will play on any current video card pretty well. A 7900GT will fly through it just fine. Oblivion is another thing though. An X1900XT will annihilate a 7900GT in that game. Here is a good review with the resolution you play at. A 7900GT will still be fine, but you'll have to turn down some of the eye-candy settings and leave AA off.