I'm a PC noob about to attempt building my first PC... HALP!

[NovaAurora]

Ok, thanks to all this information I think I'm getting somewhere    I've got a pretty good grasp on what kind of CPU and motherboard I'd need, but I'm kinda stuck on the GPU. I definitely need a relatively powerful one because I plan to do high-specs gaming with it, but I'm confused by all the different specs on them. I want to run at high resolutions and framerates, but I probably won't ever use more than 2 monitors, if I even go up from one. I'd prefer if I could keep the cost of the graphics card under/at $500. Does anyone have a recommendation for a graphics card (most likely Nvidia) at that price point that can offer great performance but doesn't bump the price up with features I'll probably not need?

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

GTX 480 works plenty fine. and has good compatibility with Win 8. Price has dropped down to about $200-250.

if you want to ride the high end of your price and get a little extra kick, you can get a GTX 580 WITH a liquid cooler for around $450-500.

Both cards have good compatibility with WIN8 so there's my 2 cents.

[anoni]

You can actually get a GTX 760 (which is higher end than a 580 and the 3 year old 480 (And generally one of the highest end graphics card around)) for around $250 on Amazon (here). You would need a relatively high end processor and power supply though, so make sure you have those before thinking of the graphics card. It's important to know that this graphics card is a much newer and powerful card than the 580 or 480, so if you like gaming I'd suggest going to there.

Generally, buy your components from small companies rather than large companies, you can shave over $200 per part if you don't purchase them from places like Intel or whatever.

[Timmy Fox]

Ok, thanks to all this information I think I'm getting somewhere    I've got a pretty good grasp on what kind of CPU and motherboard I'd need, but I'm kinda stuck on the GPU. I definitely need a relatively powerful one because I plan to do high-specs gaming with it, but I'm confused by all the different specs on them. I want to run at high resolutions and framerates, but I probably won't ever use more than 2 monitors, if I even go up from one. I'd prefer if I could keep the cost of the graphics card under/at $500. Does anyone have a recommendation for a graphics card (most likely Nvidia) at that price point that can offer great performance but doesn't bump the price up with features I'll probably not need?

Graphics cards is worth waiting a month or 2 for really with all the recent releases.
At this current point, AMD is the go-to in terms of getting the most value. Their R9-280X or 7970 are both priced around $300 and performs more or less on-par with the Nvidia GTX 770 ($400). Nvidia has some technologies and niches going for them and AMD has some as well for that matter, but in terms of raw performance, the AMD card is essentially on par for about $100 less.

That said, Nvidia cards on the higher end (most notably the 780, currently priced at $649) is expected to drop dramatically in price as an answer to this, so do look out for that as it may just drop down to the $500 range. AMD is also set to launch their 290 and 290X models which might be priced around there as well.

Currently I'd personally go for the 280X or 7970 (look out for the GHz edition model of this card) due to the excellent prices. I also never really buy a current top-tier card because the value you get for the price is much less than other models. Take the 7970 for example which is the previous top-tier card; It started at $500-600ish at release and now retails at about half that price. Thus a model or two below the very top-end card usually offers excellent performance but at a much more affordable price. And in this respect, the 280X is "that" model right below the new top model (and the 7970 being nearly identical at a similar price point). That's seemingly about to change as said, but at this very point in time that's what I'd recommend.

*snip*(And generally one of the highest end graphics card around))

I'd disagree with this statement. It's one of these "good value" cards rather than a high-end card. It's more mid-high tier than high-end. The 770, 7950, 7970 and R9-280X are all less than $500 and performs higher than the 760.
The 760 is a good card, but I'd personally rather wait for the 760TI which, if Nvidia keeps their tradition, should be released within the next few months.

[White Wolf Guardian]

Only reason I will never go back to AMD, is because of how horrible the drivers were for the 5870. Constantly getting corrupted and would just stop working, requiring re-install after re-install.

[Timmy Fox]

Only reason I will never go back to AMD, is because of how horrible the drivers were for the 5870. Constantly getting corrupted and would just stop working, requiring re-install after re-install.

Heard similar issues about Nvidia to be honest.
I know a certain forum member here that actually got his older model replaced due to constant issues with THE Nvidia drivers. I used to have the 5770 which is one tier below the 5870 and never had any issues with drivers.

[NovaAurora]

I'd actually been looking specifically at the 760 and 770 as potential choices, wasn't quite sure myself why I'd wanna pay similar money for the 580. Also I was looking at the specs for games I plan on playing primarily with it, and at least one says for optimal performance on an Nvidia card it should be 600 series or higher (not sure if this is just a marketing technique or something but it came from the devs so...) I've also heard several horror stories about AMD drivers and compatibility issues with them and games before, which is not to say Nvidia doesn't have its own problems, but I've just heard more problems stemming from AMD cards personally.

[Timmy Fox]

I'd actually been looking specifically at the 760 and 770 as potential choices, wasn't quite sure myself why I'd wanna pay similar money for the 580. Also I was looking at the specs for games I plan on playing primarily with it, and at least one says for optimal performance on an Nvidia card it should be 600 series or higher (not sure if this is just a marketing technique or something but it came from the devs so...) I've also heard several horror stories about AMD drivers and compatibility issues with them and games before, which is not to say Nvidia doesn't have its own problems, but I've just heard more problems stemming from AMD cards personally.

Had AMD for 4 or 5 years myself, only ever had a single problem with their drivers and it requires 4 monitors to reproduce. Most/all driver issues with AMD I see is from people using extreme configurations, usually several cards installed.
I also think the driver version naming is also very straight forward compared to my experience with Nvidias system. AMD simply names them after year and month it was release - The current one is 13.9 for September 2013 for example.

If a game says it runs better with one or the other it's mostly marketing. The difference in performance is fairly minimal in almost every single game. Usually the developers are paid/sponsored by either Nvidia or AMD to promote them by optimizing the game for their cards. I've even seen games made to run best with Nvidia cards where AMD cards run notably better and vice versa.

As said once more, AMD's HD7970 and R9-280X is currently priced at about $100 less than the 770 but is more or less on par in terms of raw performance.
Nvidia has a lot of features going for them though, they have CUDA (which only matters really if you edit videos and such using Adobe software), Physx (adds some fancy but mostly useless effects in supported games), G-sync (makes things look better and more natural, but requires you to buy a supported monitor) and a few more things.

AMD has things like Mantle (gives increased performance in supported games, so far only BF4 is on the list), OpenGL support (an open-source alternative to CUDA) and generally better potential for overclocking.

Both of them offers free game bundles;
Nvidia gives you Assassin's Creed IV and Splinter Cell: Blacklist with the 760 and adds Batman: Arkham Origins to the list with the 770.

AMD, with the 7970, lets you choose any 3 games from this list: Saints Row IV, Tomb Raider, Sleeping dogs, Deux Ex: Human Revolution, Devil May Cry, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Dirt 3, Dirt Showdown and Sniper Elite. (Although the R9-280X is currently excluded from this offer)

I'd say honestly that it comes down to if you want the more premium features Nvidia offers for a higher price or a better value and equal performance at a lower price which is what AMD stands for.

[NovaAurora]

Ok, thanks for all the info. I do plan on using adobe software for that, so perhaps it would be worth it for the Nvidia then. But in any case I'm glad to hear there are a lot of options.