I am looking to buy a new card ASAP, but I cant decide which card to buy. I am running a XFX 780i mobo. I play mostly First Person Shooters at 1920x1080. Is the 9800x2 going to be ridiculously overpriced? If it is I would rather go with a HD3870x2, even though im running a 780i.

Since I nor anyone else can anser that question you'll have to wait and find out or feel bad for making a rushed purchase. What if you bought the ATI 3870x2 only to find out that the 9800GX2 was not only faster but you could SLI two of them on your 780i?
 

By systemlord at 2008-01-04

Judging by the design of the 9800 and how much it is scheduled to cost I would say it sure will cost alot more then the 3870x2. The 9800 will still be stuck with DX10.0 and have **** dx10 performance forever but the ati cards are dx10.1 and compatable for the next few years of updates.

 
Are you assuming that the 9800GX2's are going to cost more or do you have links to support it? It will be some time before DX10 or DX10.1 will become a standard, hell the games that they call DX10 now don't look that much better than there Dx9 counterparts. Crysis with the render hack on Windows XP looks almost the same as the DX10 version.  
 
All Crytek did was add a few DX10 effects that didn't make much difference, same thing with Bioshock. Dx10.1 isn't even out yet and it will be a while before game developers start taking advantage of something that not even out yet. I guess in about two years we'll see DX10.1 in most games.

good points, but systemlord, will I  need two of either of those in the next 2 years?

For more go to = Visit http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] ark06-zone
 

By systemlord at 2008-03-02

8800GTS 512's would look better to me.
 
The 9800GX2 is supposed to be ~$600.  Hope the 9800GTX improves it's performance and keep a reasonable price.

i am about to order a HD3870x2, I hope this does not present any problems on my 780i motherboard.

Sounds like a good choice.  I still want to see how the 9800GX2 and 9800GTX are, but I am starting to lean towards getting a 3870X2 as well to replace my 8800GT.
 
ATI is supposed to release a slightly updated one though in a couple months I think, so I might wait for that.  Nvidia might have some good products, but the 3870X2 scales well at higher resolutions, is available now, and is a very reasonable $450.

You can CF 2 3870X2 also. BTW ATI 4000 series coming this JUNE.    
 
Nvidia 9000 series uses the same old core from 8000 series, just a few tweak from its predecessor and a new name.  

 
This is the same thing Nvidia did when the 7800GTX was out, then came the 7900GTX. Here we are doing it all over again.  

hi
after seeing this
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/671/1/
i am totally impressed ,sound like CrossFire X is promising
and i am looking forward to grab one and CFx with 3870
still looking for cheap AMD 790G motherboard

Your not going to be able to run two ATI cards in SLI,so seeing as you own a 780i,you should wait untill the 18th of this month and see what the price will be.If you go with a eVGA 9800GX2 and it turns out you do not like it,you can use it to step up to the 9800 GTX which should be released by the end of this month. It would be wrong to rush into this with both cards being released this month. Whats the rest of your system like??

meh, aslong as its better who cares.

Yes the 9800GX2 will beat the 3870x2 in performance and yes it IS going to be (riduculously) expensive.
 
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php? [...] 5&Itemid=1
 
If you play only FPS then you might as well wait for the next gen card from either company cos there isn't any great FPS coming out for a while. Farcry2 and Alan Wake are expected in august. Get a 8800GT or a GTS in the meantime. SLI them if you wish.

Thank you for your wise knowledge on what to do.
 
Although since 8800GT or GTS sli'ed is basically the GX2 I wonder if you meant to contradict yourself by recommending a setup that will make even more heat and take even more power then the hungry Gx2. Oh well.
 
 
Either way I dont see the problem. itll be a great card end of and it doesn't have a ridiculously high price, tis the same as all top-end Nvidia cards when they came out.
 
 
Watercooling ftw

Everyone doesn't crap money, mate. The Radeon 3870x2 is $420. Whilst the 9800x2 is $600. If you expect a stupendously bombastic performance of the 9800x2 when compared with the Radeon x2, you will be very disappointed. Anyways, in reality, anything above 50fps is pure bragging rights and thats all. I'm not a fanboy, i own an 8800GT myself, but seeing the performance of the 3870x2 i have doubts about the 9800gx2. The 3870x2 wud def be a gud/better choice if the OP cannot wait for the next gen.

in response to stan116. My system right now consists of a XFX 780i mobo, 2gb of Corsair PC6400 DDR2, Core 2 Duo e8400 Wolfdale, and no gpu at th e moment. I am about to order a 3870x2, any final words? From what I have found, the 3870x2 is the best card for the price. The new nvidia cards do seem really appealing, but the 3870x2 is 3/4 of the price.

I've got 1 x 3870, it runs all current games great, go for it, you won't regret it. Like I said in another post, it handles Crysis dx10 ultra high no problem (29 FPS). So the x2 should wipe the floor with it.