4850X2 Crossfire or 4870X2

[drakleon84]

Let's assume the system is an i7/6gb ram/24" monitor at 19x12

I'm sort of trying to stay on a budget with this build, and I have a 4850X2 selected already and was thinking in about 6-9 months, throwing another one in and crossfireing them to give myself more headroom for another 6~ months after.

Would I be better off just getting a 4870X2?

 

[drakleon84]

I've also recently been looking into the GTX 280, but I'm confused as all hell as to why the listings I find here vary SO much in price, whereas I can't find the spec diferencs (besides the bus being 8-10% faster, which just seems like it's a factory OC'd card for twice the price).

Thanks for help!

Seems scaling wise and from the Anantech Multi GPU article that a 280 can hold it's own, if not run SLIGHTLY behind the 4850X2, but if you throw another one in SLI down the line, it crushes everything you throw at it.

 

[fullmetall]

Make sure your motherboard will support both sli/xfire before getting the the gpu.