The New Series Of Nvidia Graphic Cards vs. The 9800's

I know there will always be something bigger, better, and faster coming out on the market but when I originally built my desktop I chose a Mid-tower because I didn't want a High-tower due to the size etc... but I do dislike the mid-tower because it leaves about an inch of space for air flow from the intake fan to the output fan, due to its size. I recently got back from school so I have yet to set-up my desktop but I put in it a EVGA Nvidia 9800 GX2 graphics card which was the new and best, and this was only a year ago now.

I haven't really been following new cards and such for a while but can anyone give me a summary of what has happened since the 9800 GX2? I know some are now equipped with DDR3 but what else about them is making them the new and better series?

Would there be any advantage to upgrading to a 2 or 4 series?

Thanks
-Lollies

Originally I built my pc for mostly gaming and occasionally using photoshop etc... Now I don't use it for gaming since most games are being released on 360 and pc so its mainly being used for graphic design.

XGUNTHERC said:

well for graphics design if it does the job then keep it. but I'd upgrade for gaming and what not. Crysis 2, and many other great games are coming this year in DX11 and only a 5000 series from ATI or a Fermi card from nvidia can run those. otherwise it's DX9 or DX10. and your running windows 7 so I'd upgrade to a new card.

Also the 9800GX2 is 2 of the 9800GT. that exact card got a die size decrease, and helps lowered power usage, and heat output and is the 9800GTX, then got improved again and is the + and now that same card is the GTS 250 just renamed... your GX2 puts out tons of heat, and sucks lots of power and I remember it not scaling well and having stuttering in some games n such.

Personally I'd sell it, and if you don't need top of line for gaming then get a DX11 capable 5770, that or get the GTX 460 when it gets released in a few weeks as that will be the mainstream Fermi from Nvidia. it will get about 4 times the performance of your card, with less heat and a little less power usage

I noticed the heat output when I first started using it. I know it also had a significant amount of issues with Fallout 3 when it was first released, the issues eventually got fixed but I started using my 360 more than my pc for gaming. I will probably do some gaming but probably more designing than gaming...in theory.

So would the GTX 460 be the big and best thing that should be out in 4 weeks or would that be the 480?

400 Series
GeForce GTX 480
GeForce GTX 470
200 Series
GeForce GTX 295
GeForce GTX 285
GeForce GTX 285 for Mac
GeForce GTX 280
GeForce GTX 275
GeForce GTX 260
GeForce GTS 250
GeForce GT 240
GeForce GT 220
GeForce 210

If the 9800 GTX was changed twice then renamed to the GTS 250 then essentially what was the point of the 9800 GX2? And what would my card go for now?

I was completely up to date with the 9800 series but when the 200 and 400 series came out I just got lose in the mix.