260 v 4870 v 4850x2

Another "what should I do" question.

I was screwed out of buy.com's $200 280GTX SSC, so I am on the hunt for a new card.

For about the same price I am seeing:
4870 1gb $264
4850x2 2gb $279
gtx260 core 216 $260

I have a 30" monitor I'd to drive at high settings and play a variety of games (so pinpointing specific games to a brand of card is out).

As a side note, I am upgrading a Dell Studio 540, I already have a 650w PSU and I am pretty sure I can move the HD's around to make room for any card - lengthwise. Of course going for a 4850 or 9800GTX+ with 1gb is always an option to save money.

The 4850x2 will be the fastest of those by a fairly large margin.

The 4850X2 is a potent card, just make sure you have enough room in your case (28.5 C.M. or 11.5" ) long, good ventilation and check the cards power requirements against your PSU.

Hadn't thought about ventilation.... I have no idea if the Dell Studio 540 has good ventilation......

Time to measure, I know I'll have to move a HD at the very least. And i think the SATA connectors for the HD's plug in to the mobo in the adjacent slot, rear of the board. The dual sized card might interfere.

http://microcenter.com/

Look for the replacement psu for the studio there, its hard work getting a gcard into a dell, for many many reasons, why u think dell are so cheap.

350Watt Delta Unit is the psu for the studio - or if you are unlucky a 300w piece of crap,
the 9800gt should run well enough in this, on the psu though i would not bring it much higher, or you will be seeing alot of the black screen, freezes etc etc.

I told you the card would be a driver nightmare.

Update. Uninstalled the drivers and CCC, before i could reboot Vista re-found the driver and installed (so I let it). I then rebooted and reinstalled CCC (CCC only) and now CCC works fine.

Of course I have no idea what to do with it, need to learn about that. But it is nice that I see what is going on with the card now