Trying to decide on a video card

[Pete1burn]

I currently have:

Thermaltake 1200w psu
Asus L1N64-WS SLI mobo
Two AMD FX-70 cpus
BFG 8800GT
4GB OCZ RAM

I run it all on a 21" monitor at 1680x1050. I play all kinds of games like WoW, Eve, CoD4, Sins of a Solar Empire, Crysis, etc. I'm looking for something to play all of these games (AND future games like Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3) at 1680x1050 with full detail.

I've been told all kinds of things, like at my current resolution, I won't see any increase at all from my 8800GT, or that it's so small of a performance increase that it's wasted money.

I'm also trying to figure out what to get. I have been looking at the Sapphire 4850X2 for along time as the top contender, but didn't know if there was an Nvidia card that might be better without spending more than $320 or so.

Thanks for the help.

 

[bigal18]

$ 295 on tiger direct after mail in rebate ($330 before mail n rebate)
$3 shipping(everything that I buy from there arrives in 3 days w/standard shipping)
GPU/VPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280

RAMDAC: Dual 400 MHz

Fill Rate per Second: 49.2 Billion pixels

Additional Features: HDTV Ready
SLI Ready
DirectX 10
OpenGL 2.1
PCI Express 2.0
HDCP Enabled (Dual-Link)

Maximum Resolution: 2560 x 1600 (Digital)

Video Memory: 1GB

Memory Type: GDDR3

Memory Interface: 512-bit

Stream Processors: 240

Core Clock: 615 MHz

Memory Clock: 2214 MHz

Shader Clock: 1350 MHz

Memory Bandwidth: 147.0GB/sec.

Interface Type: PCI Express 2.0

Interface Speed: x16

Connector(s): Dual DVI (Dual Link)
HDTV/S-Video
VGA (w/DVI to VGA Adapter)
HDMI (w/ Adapter)

Multiple Monitors Support: Yes

or on newegg.com for $330 after mail in rebate.($360 before mail n rebate)
free shipping 3 day shipping

Model
Brand EVGA
Model 01G-P3-1281-AR
Interface
Interface PCI Express 2.0 x16
Chipset
Chipset Manufacturer NVIDIA
GPU GeForce GTX 285
Core clock 648MHz
Stream Processors 240 processing cores
Memory
Memory Clock 2484MHz(effective)
Memory Size 1GB
Memory Interface 512-bit
Memory Type GDDR3
3D API
DirectX DirectX 10
OpenGL OpenGL 2.1
Ports
HDMI 1 via Adapter
DVI 2
TV-Out HDTV / S-Video Out
General
RAMDAC 400 MHz
Max Resolution 2560 x 1600
SLI Supported Yes
Cooler With Fan
Power Connector 2 x 6 Pin
Dual-Link DVI Supported Yes
HDCP Ready Yes
Packaging
Package Contents 01G-P3-1281-AR
Driver Disk
User's Manual
Power Cable
DVI to VGA/D-sub Adapter
DVI to HDMI Adapter
S/PDIF Cable
Manufacturer Warranty
Parts Lifetime limited
Labor Lifetime limited

 

[Pete1burn]

Can you tell me why you are recommending a GTX 280 over the 4850 X2?

 

[DiscoDuck]

If your current rig is maxing out your monitor's in-game resolution of your current games, then leave it alone. If you want more in visual quality, you'll need to get a new video card AND a 24" monitor.

 

[Pete1burn]

I was getting some slow downs on my older system, and decided to move everything to my system I listed in the first post. I just know that I'll need more graphics power for newer games coming out like World at War, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, etc.

I'm trying to figure out if it's better to get a GTX 280, 4850 X2 (even though driver issues scare me) or the newer GTX 285.

I'd rather not spend too much, (hence the $350 limit) and lots of people have told me that at 1680x1050, I don't need much more power than an 8800GT. So I don't want to waste money on a high-powered card if I'm never going to use it all at this resolution, but at the same time, I want to know that I'm covered for future games for a while.

 

[Pete1burn]

I'm sorry, I made a mistake. The resolution is 1600x1200. I don't know if that makes a difference.

How would this card perform at 1600x1200?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130441