Not sure about 3 3870s beating a 9800GX2? But you can get 2x8800GT for same price and have enough money for a mobo (although a cheap mobo after) and that'll outperform.
p.s. curious can you get an intel motherboard with 3x 16x slots?
At this point in time the GX2 is probably the best performance for anyone without an SLI/crossfireX board.
And I agree with hatman, there are reviews that show the gx2 beating 3 3780's.
I agree price will be lower with 3780's, but if you want a good price you can have my 4200ti for 50$ that's even better ;-)
Sure the card is far from perfect and it's just an SLI on one card, but it's still the fastest single card for someone with 1 PCIe slot.
The U.S retailers are price gouging right now. The price of the GX2 will come down, but not by much. Here in Canada they list for abour 577 to 609. SO I figure you should see em somewheres in the 529-579 range. Not much better, but hey, its something.
I had one of the severn DFI setups in my profile die so I built a fast replacement about 4 weeks ago.
At first I had a 38** untill I found I could have a 8800GTS (G92) for the same price...I sent the -unopened- ATI card back for a refund.
The human eye can only see so much and anything -if- it is better than the 8800GTS (G92) only matters in a -benchmark- and for most people is 100% worthless.
Playing a game you can't tell between that and a GFX card 10 times faster.
If people have money to burn...and think that after "point X" they are going to get a higher value/game high....let those people think so.
The 8800GTS 512 (G92) can be found for as low as $220 last time I looked.
Message edited by ZOldDude on 03-21-2008 at 03:34:55 AM
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*While we crash and burn, small, low tech, agrarian societies such as the Hmong in the mountains of Laos will continue on without so much as blinking an eye.*