Maybe a dark horse candidate, but the 9800 Pro represented a great value back in the day. They could often times be flashed to become a 9800 XT. They also lasted an eternity. I was running a dual monitor setup at 3200 x 1200 on it for a long time.
Seconded for much justice!! , while not cheap it was awesome, cooler and more well behaved then the nvidias of the time