Double checking final purchase and 4870/4890

Okay guys, for a while, as some of you know, i've been looking to upgrade my gaming rig.
Here is what it's got in it at the moment.

ECS Iris8 Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4800+
3gb -- DDR 2 800
GeForce 9400GT
250-Watt crap house psu
1280x1024 19" Monitor

Right now i'm getting ready to buy 2 things, a new psu and a graphics card.

This is the PSU i'm going to get: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341019

My major dilemna is the graphics card. I can either get a 4870 or a 4890.
I realize for future proofing the 4890 is better but in the future it just might not matter with DX 11 coming and what not.

1. I'd like to hear what you guys recommend for the graphics
2. I get really nervous finalizing "big" purchases and i'd be very happy if you guys helped me come to the conclusion that everything will work together

Thanks.

also stop friggin spamming the forums. every post you have says something totally incorrect about ATI, stop fanboying it up

First question is how soon after the new cards are released do you plan on upgrading again? The 4890 has some benefits over the 4870 as far as overclocking but if you are not planning on holding onto the card for that long a 4870 or gtx 260 would be fine. The 4890 can be a great overclock-er if you get a good board and can rival a stock gtx 280/285 if you get the clocks high enough. Of course you know it all depends on what games you play on if ati or nvidia will give the advantage so base your decision off that.

If I were you I would not get anything above this...
HD 4850 512MB...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102770

Reason -
1. For your resolution, 1280x1024, the 4850 would max out the current games...
2. Newer cards are about to release by the End-od-year...So I would start saving for those...
3. Your CPU is weak and anything above 4850, might be bottlenecked...So mabye save for the newer CPU + Mobo...

hmm okay the 4850 sounds good i guess. The thing is tho, i won't be upgrading GPU's anytime soon, maybe in 1 or 2 years. I think i should atleast get the 4870 because in the future a 4850 might not be enough.

well the reason im getting that is that in the fall, i might be getting a crossfire mobo. And that would be able to carry a second card of the same model as what i'm getting now.

plus that psu is 700w, good brand for 52 bucks after MIR. pretty good deal i think

uhh no. number 1 upgrade is videocard / psu. as an added bonus, i might just swap out my mobo in the fall later on. I'm going to be switching to a motherboard that just lets me transfer all my parts for now but later add things like an AM3 processor.

no need to worry about my future upgrades, i just need this gfx card now.

I'll let you know... I've got an IceQ4 Turbo 4850 arriving tomorrow

It was on sale over the weekend for $110 and has an additional $20 MiR.

My IceQ Turbo 4670 is now in the spare media/web machine. It's quiet, cool, and just plain perfect at low resolutions. It can game, but not well beyond 1440x900 in truly intensive games with my much desired eye-candy.

Without my actual HIS 4850 IceQ4 Turbo 512 review?

I was skeptical of HIS as first because I've never owned one nor known anyone who had one I could see first-hand. But, I figured what the heck, this 4670 is on sale and pretty cheap. Since then, it's really impressed me. It's so quiet and cool, even under load. It played Fallout3 at 1440x900 using Ultra settings almost flawlessly. At 1680x1050, it took a performance hit, but remained playable. At 1920x1080, gameplay became rather unpleasant. It even locked up, once.

Now, I know the 4600 series is not the space heater the 4800 series can be, but it's performance, quietness, and it's cooling really impressed me for something considered a "mainstream" card. I'm hopeful this also rings true for the 4850 I have coming to use in the household "gamer" machine.

Something else to consider is you've only gotten 3 other people's opinions, here... You may want to hold on a day or two and see if you can drum up a few more.

LOL. My Dad won't even pay for his own computer needs, let alone mine... But I'm all growed up and can handle my PC needs.

It's a good thing for you that prices on the 4800 series dropped recently.

well what i'm planning on doing is... in the fall, i get the money for a new mobo, and transfer the exact same parts to that. After that i'm going to add a Phenom II x4 when i get the money.

but on newegg there are mobos that support AM2/AM2+/AM3.
atleast thats what it says.

okay so i'll not use ddr3. big deal? i dont think so. DDR2 1066 should be fair enough

exactly. good for you