I\'m tired of ATi, too. they don\'t seem to last me long, and installing drivers can be a nightmare. one thing I must say *for* ATi is that they are open about the operation of their processors, making it easier for Linux systems to use \'em.
I just ordered a GF4MX440SE DDR for $39, which is about the going rate. I haven\'t tried the FX chips, but the GF4MX440s are just such a good darn price now...
of course, the flipside about the nVidia cards is that the Linux, Unix, and FreeBSD drivers are closed...held by nVidia, so it isn\'t build into the Linux kernel. the driver\'s not all that hard to install, but lots of problems could be solved by letting Linus Torvalds\' henchmen get his hands on the source code... ;-)
both ATi and nVidia cards are good. ATi has never intended to be high performance chips but good chips truly worth getting, like the video input/output, DVD decoders (a while ago), etc. nVidia has always tried to be the highest speed chips. ATi has really surprised a lot of people by edging over nVidia in performance lately. I still recommend nVidia cards for gaming, unless you\'re interested in wasting money to get a high speed card...
(I\'m not really an nVidia or ATi guy. I have 3 nVidia cards and 3 ATi cards. I like \'em both. I started out as a big ATi and anti-nVidia guy, and now I\'m about 50%/50%.)