Also remember that Nvidia released the 8800GT not longer after this, which they offered nearly almost the performance of the 8800 GTX for $250. They didn't have to do that. It's a rare display where a GPU leader that dominates from top to bottom that they release a bang for buck card like this when there is no incentive or competition to do so.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/2365
Unfortunately, I don't think Nvidia will be that generous again.