Hello. I'll be ordering a budget system soon and i was sure to go with the hd 4850 but then, surfing through Newegg i found this deal for a 3870x2:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127326

I know the power of a 4850, ive tried myself, but after saw such deal it made me doubt. As i wont be CF cuz ill be using the GA-EP45-DS3L
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128345
I can pay up too 200$ for a gfx card, and no more. Thats why i did not chose an 4870.

You guys think that 3870x2 shall give me the best performance for 200$ range ??
Tell me what do you think about it ...

PS: i'll be playing at 1650x1050 res (22" )

3870x2 should be above 4850 and equal or slightly below 4870 in average performance:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=6
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=7
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=8
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=9
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=10
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=11
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=12

So which you think that i should lay my hands on?? its an 800$ budget build and a Corsair 550W psu

I susgest the 4850. Drivers still need to mature which means it will see incremental performance gains, it uses less power, much smaller physically (if that matters), and well....its cheaper. And besides, performance wise they are preety much the same, with the 4850 not having to deal with the wierd little issues the X2 cards have.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127370

If you dont like/trust the stock cooler, or want to deal with an incredibly high pitched fan.

You think the upcoming drivers will give that appreciable performance increase to run as fast as a 3870x2 ? and what are those little issues 2 on board gpu's cards are supposed to have ??

Well take Quake Wars for example, not a good game but still a good example regardless. 30FPS different in the 2 cards with the 3870X2 playing the rear. And again in Bioshock, at a very high res. But then again its flipside in a few test, all in which the 3870X2 BARELY beats it.

And the 3870X2 has preety much met its performance numbers, future drivers more than likely will do nothing for it.

i would pass on the 3870x2.. the 4850 may not perform as well, but it is newer, consumes less power, and has room to grow still

the 4850 seems to do better on higher resolutions

I believe there is a stutter problem with drivers for the 3800 series..
I'd say get the 4850..

Microstutter is unnoticable for nearly all people. Quake Wars is a rather glitchy game, and 3870x2 still get over 50 fps at 1920x1200 with AA, so it's good enough regardless. It performs higher than 4850 in more intense games, where every bit of performance matters. If you use a crossfire motherboard, I'd recommend 4850. But since you can't cf anyway, 3870x2 is simply the better choice over 4850 if they're at similar prices.