My situation is this:
I'm currently in the middle of shopping for parts for a new gaming rig I plan on putting together soon. I haven't been keeping up (unfortunately) with the latest technologies, so I've had to do a lot of research. Despite my efforts I still can't seem to come to a decision about what GPU best fits my needs.
Initially the computer will only run one video card, however I plan on adding another one later, which makes Crossfire and SLI big factors. Therefore I am willing to take a small performance hit if one of the two cards performs better in SLI or Crossfire, or if a card made by the same company (nVidia or ATi) will be a better choice later on. After spending many hours looking at benchmarks and reviews, my choice comes down to these two cards:
nVidia GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
ATi Radeon HD 4870 (1GB)
What I need to know is which card will best suit my needs given the fact that I will later be adding on another card to do SLI or Crossfire. I'm willing to take a small performance deficiency if one card will perform better than the other when I add on an extra GPU. So please, I don't need to know which card is necessarily better by itself, but which is a better investment for future-proofing my system given that I will run dual cards down the road.
Depending on which card I decide on, I may switch to whatever superior card (by the same company) becomes cheaper in the future. So if I were to choose the 4870 now, I may upgrade to the 4870x2 later on down the road, and likewise if I chose the GTX 260, I may upgrade to whatever nVidia card becomes cheaper later on. Of course this upgrade will be done long after I've been using 2 cards.
So can anyone help me decide which card best suits my needs? The decision is between these two cards, and these two cards only. Also, I know this is the GPU board, but if you recommend a card, could you give me a recommendation as to what motherboard might suit my purposes as well (if you can)?
I'm currently in the middle of shopping for parts for a new gaming rig I plan on putting together soon. I haven't been keeping up (unfortunately) with the latest technologies, so I've had to do a lot of research. Despite my efforts I still can't seem to come to a decision about what GPU best fits my needs.
Initially the computer will only run one video card, however I plan on adding another one later, which makes Crossfire and SLI big factors. Therefore I am willing to take a small performance hit if one of the two cards performs better in SLI or Crossfire, or if a card made by the same company (nVidia or ATi) will be a better choice later on. After spending many hours looking at benchmarks and reviews, my choice comes down to these two cards:
nVidia GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
ATi Radeon HD 4870 (1GB)
What I need to know is which card will best suit my needs given the fact that I will later be adding on another card to do SLI or Crossfire. I'm willing to take a small performance deficiency if one card will perform better than the other when I add on an extra GPU. So please, I don't need to know which card is necessarily better by itself, but which is a better investment for future-proofing my system given that I will run dual cards down the road.
Depending on which card I decide on, I may switch to whatever superior card (by the same company) becomes cheaper in the future. So if I were to choose the 4870 now, I may upgrade to the 4870x2 later on down the road, and likewise if I chose the GTX 260, I may upgrade to whatever nVidia card becomes cheaper later on. Of course this upgrade will be done long after I've been using 2 cards.
So can anyone help me decide which card best suits my needs? The decision is between these two cards, and these two cards only. Also, I know this is the GPU board, but if you recommend a card, could you give me a recommendation as to what motherboard might suit my purposes as well (if you can)?