Static EMP

I had a GeForce 4 Ti4600 AGP. It broke so I had to buy a new video card. I bought the BFG GeForce FX 5500 OC 256 MB AGP. Unfortunately, I now realize that it was a bad choice, and I want to choose a new video card. I have been doing so much research but it is so confusing with all the specs and types of cards out there. If anyone can answer any of these questions for me, it would be greatly appreciated:

1. What do all the acronyms and words mean on a video card? What is the difference between XT, Pro, SE, LE, GT, Ultra, FX, Radeon, and all these other things I see at the end of video cards? What do these stand for? What's the difference?

2. I've seen comparisons of forums saying certain lower model number video cards are better than higher ones. Just recently I read in a forum that a Radeon 9500 Pro is better than a 9600 XT. I was under the impression that the higher model #s were newer and better, as was XT...

3. How come there are better cards with less RAM? The main reason I bought my BFG was cause it had 256 MB of RAM for a really good price; yet, I see a lot of 128 MB at higher costs. I'm so confused!

4. What is a good fps rating for any game? What fps should I want to see when I'm playing my games? I've seen benchmarks as low as 20-30, but then seen Quake 3 benchmarks at 150 (?! How do they get this high?)?

5. Finally, I am definitely going to sell my 5500, and want to get a new video card. Normally I'd go for top of the line, but I'll probably purchase a new computer next year, but I want a good one to hold me over for now that can run high quality graphics on a decent resolution for new games, such as Doom 3, Far Cry, and soon Half-Life 2. I don't need great frame rates at 1600 x 1200 on Ultra Quality settings just yet, but I do want High quality... what would be a good video card to go with?

Thank you!

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