Ok, first the 4850 X2 tends to beat or tie the GTX 280 across the board. It is running on drivers that do not fully support it, and the price WILL drop soon to about that range. The GTX 280 can be found for $400 at the lowest, and with the 4850 X2 @ $420 at launch that would be about right if you factor the feature/performance in comparison. However, when the 4850 X2 drops to $350 or less in a few weeks after launch the GTX 280 will be having some real problems. I have yet to find ANY GTX 260s at $200, there was a special customer code for one at $210. I can find 4870s at the same price as the lowest GTX 260 on newegg. So I am not sure where you got that from, but would really like to know if it's true! The 4850 X2 is a success in 2 ways:
1) It's price/performance ratio, once it is fully in stock and the price stabilizes you will be able to max out anything on the market for a cool $400 or likely less. I know this because I just built a system for a customer with a E5200 @ 3.5 with 2 4830s in Xfire Oc's to 690 and 2100 (710 and 2200 now though I haven't tested the performance impact) and I could max out every game @ 1920x1200 except the original Crysis. For $400, a card that can do more than that on almost ANY modern motherboard is a definite win!
2) The 4850 X2 is a winner because it fixes a lot of problems I have with dual GPU cards. It is very cool, and pulls less power than its ancestral Xfire configuration would. Can OC very well. Is not a f&%king leaf blower like the 3870 X2 was. It scales better than its ancestral 2 card configuration (The 9800 GX2 got beat by STOCK SLI'd 8800 GTS 512s). While many of these problems were also fixed with the 4870 X2, it shows progress and what ever dual GPU card comes out next, whether it be nVidia or ATI, should be atleast able to meet these precedents.
Where the 4850 X2 fails:
The 4850X2 beats the GTX 280 in some instances and ties in the others. While the 4850 X2 will definitely gain a decent amount of performance with drivers (once ATI gets around to it...) and since the 4850 X2 will be slightly cheaper than the GTX 280, it makes little difference. If I were to own a board that does not possess X16/X16 SLI support I would definitely go for the 4850 X2 over the GTX 280 thanks to features such as DX 10.1, even though the difference is minimal. However, for those who do own SLI capability the GTX 280 is 99% the deal the 4850 X2 is, and will beat the 4850 X2 when you add 2 of each, though maybe not by a great deal. The problem is the 4850 X2 and the GTX 280 are TOO similar and there are very few instances or reason to pick either one, because of this I feel that the 4850 X2 just does not change much. That said, its a nice addition to the line up of great cards on the market today.
To L1qu1d, I suggest buying your girlfriend the 4850 X2 if she does not have a Xfire or SLI motherboard. If she has an SLI motherboard, then definitely get the GTX 280 for the same price or 2 8800 GTS 512s in SLI for less which will beat both 4850 X2 and GTX 280. If she has a crossfire board that even just does X8/X8 then get 2 4830s in Xfire and OC them to 4850 clocks to get great performance at a great price, I benchmarked those cards on an X38 and a P45 and I did not see any difference, I think the lowered shaders are the reason behind that. That is just my opinion, though I think it is nice of you to buy your girlfriend something nice like that, hope she appreciates whatever you get her!
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