Questions regarding cards and ATI prices

My question relies on getting a newer graphics card sence my old nVidia 8600 GTS aint really doing it for me anymore

Id searched the web for all kind of information regarding card choice and so to say iv narrowed it down to some of the ATI 4870is.
My number one concern is im bottlenecking my preformence to much by getting to powerfull cards so id tought it would be an good idea to let some fresh eyes look upon my troubles.

My Rig:
- Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz, 2400 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
- 4 GB DDR2 Rams
- ESC motherboard that supports Crossfire only
- enough cooling what so ever ( fan cooled )
- vista 32bit,

Primary use of my computer is without a doubt playing, and games such as Age of Conan and Far Cry 2 would be the ones im aiming for running smoothly.

Without a doubt my CPU would be a problem concerning bottlenecking and ofc the fact that my vista only deals with 3 out of 4 gb ram, but iv decided not to get a new OS before Win7 or so.

when it comes to the graphics cards I firstly decided to get a Radeon 4870 with 1gb ram, and then later on get an 2nd then to go crossfire, but all of a sudden im getting 2ndtoughts due to that fact that 4870x2 is a nice card aswell, not to say with the recent fuss about ATI reducing prices on their 4870 cards.

So to summerize, would 2 4870 1gb cards in crossfire be to much of a bottlenecking problem with my current rig or would a another graphics card make it all go better?

what a feared unfortuently im not really skilled in the art of clocking and wouldent start doing that without atleast some sort of knownledge,

ah okay
cheers thou.

but do anyone know if there is any fact in the fuzz about ATI lowering prices in April ?

now im using 1680x1050 but read several places that SLI and Crossfire sometimes would preform higher in high resolutions + i dont got a tiny screen, got 22inc.

Iv read some places that 4870 1gb might drop to as low as 200$, and i find that extream

160$ well iv orded a 4870 1bg one earlier this month (havent arrived and can still decline it) for about 250$ and was thinking going all way to 4870x2 whice has a way higher price. tbh i found 4870x2 slightly expensive thou.

I think the best option for you would be to go with 2 4830's because at 1680x1050 a 2 4870 would be overkill. Plus your cpu would be a bottleneck. Put 2 4830 in your rig and you should be able to play most games with all the eye candy. If you want to spend more for a bit more power get 2 4850's.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127420 (4830)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131125 (4850)

Benchmarks- http://www.hexus.net/content/item. [...] 300&page=6

Go for a single 4870, it`ll far outlast a 4850 or 2x4830s and the Egg has several 1Gb 4870s for under $200 now.

@ maai; Sorry, I thought you were from the US!
Read the SLI/CF FAQ at the top of the front page for information on both systems.
I do n`t like multi-GPU setups because their extra performance has to be programmed in by the game developers and not all games support this feature, leaving a SLI/CF system using half of its potential in such cases.
I had a 512Mb 4870 and it ran my 1920x1200 monitor just fine so the 1 Gb version will be overkill for your 22" screen right now, but it will have extra performance in reserve, for the next generation of super games.

its hard to decide I like the idea of the price to preformance ratio for 4580 and cf but that 4870 sounds damn sweet aswell

I might go with 4850 tou and then start of with just one, just slightly unsure to what exactly the amount of rams do, 512 or 1gb

the cheapest ones avilable is the Asus ones . 512 for 180$ and the 1gb for 209$ either price is good tbh really

okay cheers think im settled for now

but 260 is massize im afraid i dont got room for that in the case

Well i got a raidmax katana case so then i quess it should be able to fit tou i hate to be mainstream ;D thank god i have ages to decide apparently its hard to decide

I scored a 4870 1GB for $200 in a combo with a PII 940. Havent gotten to really stretch its legs yet, but was certainly a good deal.

If I were you, I would only go 512MB on a 4850. The GDDR3 doesnt have the bandwidth to address a full 1GB of memory. If you decide to step up to 4870, then move to the 1GB model. You may not get the full benefits today, but with the 1GB version you at least have some in reserve for future games.