Right I know its related to my other post but that was for the comp in general so you can make suggestions etc, this is time find out what is the best card for me for my price £260.. I am NOT a fanboy of Nvidia or ATI I might stretch the price range within reason. I would go for the HD4870 hands down due to its price and what it can give, and it has a better image quality than nvidia cards (so I hear) but I also hear that ATI card can't render to save their life (my HD3870 is fine on Catylest 8.7 o.O) again I believe that was from a Nvidia fanboy.
I just want to know what card will be best for me and my price and one that I will not regart getting I m sure that ethoir will do, but please bare in mind I will only be having a xfire mobo because the Nvidia chipsets are well not up to standard and too expensive.
The cards what I was thinking are
the HD4870 including the 1Gb version
point of view GTX280 or gainwood version
I will consider the GTX260
or a GX2 that is in my price range.
any ideas? or can anyone put my mind to rest about the strange rendering on the HD 4K cards ? I don't want to buy it than send it back >_>

As you can see in my sig I own a 4870. I can play anything on it with the highest details (except crysis). All games are rendered beautifully so I don't have anything to complain. I play GRID, UT3, Devil May Cry 4. This is a great card and you won't regret buying it. If you have a crossfire mobo then in the future you can add another 4870 or even a 4870x2 , but only if you play an very high resolutions - 1920x1200+.

thanks I was wondering since i can't afford a X2, to go for a 1Gb version, i know someone with a little HD4850 and its doing strange things (its not crashing) its just like putting strange textures and all that, I was just wondering what the problem was, just in case I also have that problem thats whats stopping me from following cheap can be cheerful
thanks anyways

get a HD4870 512mb if you playing on 1680x1050 or less. Make sure you get proper PSU if you planing on going CF later... That's what I did .

I have a 8month old 750watt tough power from thermltake, that should be able to handle it.
I have a 17inch CRT monitor but planning to get a 24inch HD TV any trouble with that? I do play at resolution on most games now.

I suppose 24 inch will handle 1900x1200 that means you could definitely find some fps in having 4870 in cf or better having 4870x2. But that would cost you, however you could get 2x1 Gb DDR instead of 2x512 for the same price.

I'd say get a 1gb version of the 4870 for now, that way you can x-fire with a 4870x2 later with no penalties ram-wise especially when it's price drops.
Happy gaming!!

I just installed a 4870 over the weekend. I am impressed. I play at 1680x1050. I can play Crysis at "Very High" (except shadows at High) w/ no AA and average 25 FPS. That is very playable, and I was impressed. The lowest it dropped was 19 fps and it only happened once. I played for about an hour. The 4870 is great! I can only imagine CF or X2 with the 4870! Oh, and my PSU is only 500 watts, but I have had no issues at all.

does anyone know if sapphire make the 1Gb version, becasue I prefer sapphires plus they come with alot of things and one further question, for xfire would it be wroth going for £180 worth of X48 mobo on DDR2 means DDR3 is too expesnive and not really gaining anything

Either I misunderstood your question or I think you are confused. I believe 4850s all have 512 MB GDDR3 and all 4870s have 1GB GDDR5. It doesn't matter which brand you go with.

no the HD4870 does have 512 but there are 1Gb version of the same card same goes for the HD4850 there is also 1Gb version of that as well