Vista - Chip refreshes doing my head in!!!!

A friend often asks me for advice etc on pc upgrades etc, now wanting to choose a new graphics card even im getting confused with all the new chips. Last i heard the 260 was being shrinked to 55nm, but the 9800gtx is already 55nm??? Now there is talk of 40nm cards in q1 2009.

Whats the best advise to give if someone wants a card that will give good performance but wants to keep the power low for financial reasons?

ive pointed her here since this one only uses 1 pcie connector & is as good as the rest of the 9800gtx cards
EVGA | Products 9 Series Family

Or am i best to just say 'wait until the 40nm refresh'

What is your budget?

i wouldnt buy a 40nm chip unless your friend wants a hole in his/her carpet, they will burn hottttt

around £200 which i beleive is about $300

heres one a bit higher than 200 but its 55nm and its a powerful card 896-P3-1255-ER - 896MB EVGA GTX 260, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1998MHz GDDR3, 55nm GPU 576MHz, 216 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV - Scan.co.uk

ah, so the 260 is actually 55nm now, not just the 295??? sweet news.

yea, NV decided to implement it when they announced the core 216's on 260gtx's. theyve been around for about 3 months now.