Im building my first Ground up PC and have decided to go with an AMD as my chipset but what i would like to know is Which GPU to go with for a JVC 1920x1080p resolution Crossfire 4850's or single? Or maybe 8800gt sli or single? im even thinking about maybe Ati's lower cards the 3850 or 3870. The games i want to play are AoC,Crysis,GoW2, and Alone in the Dark.

Well, you'll definitely want to go with an ATI card. If you're getting the card to play games, get the 4870, or 4850 if the 4870 is too much, they just perform better.

If you want the card for an HTPC build, you'll want the 3850 or 3870 as they'll play movies at 1080p just as well as any other AND ATI's 3800 series and above cards pass sound straight through HDMI to your TV. ATI's cards have onboard sound decoders. The 3800 series cards have onboard 5.1 audio decoding and the 4800 series cards have onboard 7.1 audio decoding. And they all pass through HDMI when you use the included DVI-HDMI adapter.

Even if you have surround sound computer speakers, if you have an HDMI receiver, you can use the video card to pass sound to your receiver and then to your speakers and eliminate the need for a discrete sound card or even using your motherboard's onboard audio.


EDIT: I think I may have gave you more than you were asking. I was also assuming your JVC HDTV has HDMI. From a pure gaming perspective, I'd get a single 4870 and crossfire that later with another when prices drop down a little or a good rebate comes out. If you don't want to wait, a crossfire 4850 would definitely give you some graphic horsepower. Also, depending on how long you're going to wait, the 4850x2 and 4870x2 are coming out in about a month. And some people will argue with me that it doesn't matter, but I'd choose a board with PCI-Express 16x 2.0 slots and not just PCI-Express 16x 1.1 slots. Which brings up another point. The new 790FX boards with the newer SB750 SouthBridge are coming out at the end of this month the last I heard. It may be worth waiting on those too. lol i hope this was somewhat helpful...

For Movie watching though, both the improved UVD engine and the improved 7.1 audio support IMO would be a reason to look to an HD4850.

Ok ill go with the 4850 but should i go with dual 4850 at that resolution or is it overkill and not worth the xtra 200 or so?

get the 4870 or wait for the 4870 x2 if you wanna play crysis

For heavy gaming, dual 4850 or 4870 would be a good choice, but for moderate gaming, a single 4850 will be more than adequate. The only game it should struggle at all with right now is Crysis at that resolution.

I wouldn't go dual 4850 so much as maybe go singel HD4870-1GB should they arrive shortly. I was recommending the HD4850 only if you were low siding your equation, IMO single HD4870 for now, and then later maybe consider another once they've come down in price. The single HD4870 is good for that resolution for most ames now (even Crysis without AA).

Very true - in Crysis at 1080p with AA, 1GB could help a lot, as could the increased bandwidth available with GDDR5.