tech savvy graphics card questions..

Generally, you don't want to play Crysis on a workstation card. I suggest you pick between the 4870 X2 and the GTX 280, then contact support for your CAD programs to see if they work on those cards.

Between HD 4870 X2 and GTX 280: the GTX wins at 1280x1024 and 1680x1050, and the 4870x2 at 1920x1200. In all three cases you probably won't notice the difference because it's very small. At 2560x1600 the 4870X2 is still playable (34.2 fps) but the GTX 280 is a bit too weak (22 fps).
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3372&p=6

The HD 4870X2 has some advantages when it comes to HD movies but TBH I don't know the details.

If you have an nVidia motherboard (780i, 790i) get the GTX 280 so you can add a second card later. If you have an X48 get the HD 4870 X2- same reason.

One more thing: unless you're a huge Crysis fan and expect to play nothing else for the next two years or so, look at benchmarks for other games too. Crysis is very weird, and its benchmarks look a lot different than the usual we see for other games. For example in Oblivion the HD 4870 X2 beats the GTX 280 by a large margin at all resolutions. http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3372&p=7
Crysis favors nVidia cards because nVidia engineers worked hard to optimize it, but that's an exception.

Wish there was a hybrid card that has selectable drivers that can be tweeked before launching the application. Maybe something Rivatuner could take a closer look into..

I would game at 3840X2400 if I could, and no it's never enough.. ; )

When you say "overpriced workstation junk".. that's where I'm coming from.. It seems like the only reason the cards are priced that high is because companies will foot the bill as a tax write-off so it doesn't matter how high they price the cards.. what a joke though seriously $2,000 for a GPU that will be outdated in 1 year easily.. ATI should wise up and introduce a hybrid.

Crysis is not the game of choice here.. just using it as a benchmark..

Salute,
BW11