HD 4870 decision

4870x2 is such a beast that I think you wouldn't really benefit from it unless you have a monitor capable of 1920x1200, MAYBE 1680x1050. Anything below that wouldn't do the card justice, and that's just from preliminary benchmarks of an early engineering sample.

So anyways, regarding your question of a 4870, I'd say this. If you don't already max out everything you play and you really can get the 4870 for cheap, then go for it. 4870 is usually greater than or equal to the GTX 260, meaning it'll probably perform about %20 - %30 better than the 9800GTX on average. With that kind of horsepower and your monitor, you could probably run anything you wanted at max settings and be happy, except Crysis.

Also, 9800GTX sells for around $200 now since 9800GTX+ will be hitting stores soon (if it hasn't already), and the HD 4870 is around $300. So I have a bit of trouble understanding how you're going to get a 'free' upgrade. Unless you're confusing the 4870 with the 4850. In which case, the 4850 is about equal to the 9800GTX and probably wouldn't really be worth 'upgrading' to.

@mathiassch nell

In the UK, on ebay, the 9800gtx OC can be sold for £180. The 4870 can also be bought for £180 Free upgrade


Thanks for the feedback guys, i guess i wont have to worry about saving up for the x2

I may get some watercooling for the rig to see how the overclock is

Thanks for all your replys, really appreciated.

Regards,

--alex