You can get bulbs with as high as 100W but they are not legal on the street in most states, and they will attract Cops if you go to bright. Stock low beam is 55w stock high beam is 65w.

Aren't you planning no replacing the E46? If so, I wouldn't bother with changing the headlights or bulbs. If you decide to keep it, you can go with brighter bulbs as The Cleaner stated but there's a point when it's just like having your high beams on all the time. You can try different brands like Hoen, Sylvania, or PIAA to get a slightly whiter light. Or you can try to get a xenon retrofit kit. I have been quite happy with my Hoen Xenonmatch foglights for the X5.

Good luck!

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The easiest thing to do is switch the halogen bulbs to xenon gas (filament) bulbs (not to be confused with HID bulbs). You will get more lumens and a whiter (higher K rating light) that will appear much brighter on the road when you're driving.

I guess I'll look into the xenon filament bulbs. Maybe it's just a waste of time.

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I was just reading up on the OSRAM/Sylvania Silverstar bulbs (Xenon gas charged bulbs). It's the same company, but the OSRAM (euro) version of the bulb puts out 50% more lumens than a standard halogen bulb, with a slightly whiter light, while the Sylvania version puts out about 30% more output than a standard halogen, but is significantly whiter and closer to daylight color due to a barely noticable blue tint added to the glass (which is also responsible for the lower lumen output). I use the Sylvanias and love them. There is a significant improvement in lighting performance compared to the halogens due to the higher lumen output combined with the whiter color (the closer to daylight color, 4000-4300K rating, the better the road is illuminated).

Stay away from anything that claims to be rated at over 4300K, they will be garbage. They will have a heavy blue coating on the glass to achieve a faux-HID look, but the bluish colour makes it very difficult to see at night in addition to drastically lowering the lumen output of the bulb. I tried a pair once that had a 5500K rating, but were 100W. I figured the higher wattage would make up for the loss of illumination caused by the bluer light, but I was wrong. The visibility was so bad I pulled them and tossed them in the garbage after my first drive.