yeah i know what you mean:
both about keeping up with the stuff and with the pricing.
the trick with the pricing is to go just below where the price doesn’t justify the performance. you can still get quite high that way on the cpu ladder.
graphics cards at the moment – i’d recommend the geeforce 5900XT, its ~ 200euro, very cheap and well above it sits just under the 5900 and 5900 ultra cards (being top of the graphics card ladder).
komplett.ie have an MSI 5900XT for ~ 200 euro.