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It's ugly out there. As of late July, Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was down almost 13% for the preceding 12 months.

With the housing market on the skids and energy prices soaring, the economy seems more vulnerable than it has in decades.

At times like these, you may be sorely tempted to flee stocks before your 401(k) gets any droopier.

It's certainly not a bad thing that the new $349 (give or take, but more likely give) Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS delivers comparable performance to last year's $500-plus GeForce 8800 GTX.

The question is, would you be able to pick it out off the shelf? To do so ...