1GB 4870 vs 1GB GTX 285.

i'd go with SLi. dispite, 4870 or 285 they are no match. nvidia has more mature driver support and ATI has very little. i'm no Nvidia fanboy because i'm using ATI card myself, but if you r going to do 2 video card solution, you would be better off with SLI than xfire.

these 2 cards are in different rankings, the 4870 is less than half the price of the 285 GTX, and is def not 50% slower.

So out of the 2, the better p/p card would be the 4870.

The best card over all is the 285 GTX.

as for your sli question:

285 GTX sli > 4870 CrossX > 285 GTX > 4870 for power.

Alot of users have been complaining about the drivers not working they were supposed 2 with ATI, but who knows what will happen.

The 285 GTX is about 25-30% faster than the 4870 1 gig in general, but then again thats just not worth the extra 4870 you could get for the money, and get 20-30% faster setup than the single 285 GTX.

We need an idea of what your system is, and what your going to do. Also your Resolution.

I mean it might be hard saying go 285 on a CrossX board, and 4870 (though a really good price) on a sli board in terms of future proofing (or just plain and simply increasing you frames).

The 4870 is the better value by far. However, the GTX 285 is definitely the faster card.

GTX285 = Better Faster

HD4870 = Best BANG for the BUCK !

Monitor Size and RES ? PSU ? MEM ? CPU ?

Unfortunately, the long run doesn't apply much with graphics cards.

The gtx285 is clearly faster, and a lot more expensive. If you bought one a few months ago it might have been a decent buy 'in the long run'.

Now its quite likely to be beaten by a new card within 2-3 months, and will probably halve in price because of that. For that reason its a bad buy in the long run at its current price.

Same could be said about any graphics card, but the very highest end tend to have a much shorter lifespan. They just aren't worth it unless money truly is no object, and if you need to ask whether or not its worth it in the long run, it probably isn't.

If i listen to you jennyh ... ill NEVER buy a computer cause price ALWAIS CHANGE.

ENJOY the hardware you can buy NOW plz ...

If its really budget limited = HD4870. IF NOT = GTX285 and ENJOY the beast