I'm eyeing the 480 myself as well - I'll probably get one for my new computer build. (I'm sort of holding out for AMD Zen on the CPU side - I could use the higher core count for compiling - but it looks like it might be a bit far off. I'll probably go for an AM4 APU to hold me over, then get a Zen chip once they turn up.) On the GPU side, I don't have a set budget, and between my two monitors I have a bit more than 1080p in pixels - with some perf penalty for AMD's Linux drivers, the 480 lineup looks about right. (Not that I can really game on both monitors, they're mismatched so it's rather awkward. I just play on the bigger one.) The Nvidia parts are pretty impressive, but AMD has excellent open-source drivers on Linux. With Nvidia you're married to the binary blob - should Nvidia not support your software stack, you're SOL.