Which Video card?

anything other than the Radeon 5850 ?

you recommned the ATI over the new geforce 470 & 480's?

between the GTX470 and 5850, its almost just done to what you want (though the GTX470 is $350)

though between the 5870 and GTX480, i would get the 5870 since the extra 10% isn't worth $100 (5870 - $400, GTX480 - $500)

for $300, i would get the 5850 just to be able to crossfire down the road instead of having to buy a new $300/$400 card after a few years

which company of 5850 do you recommend

XFX offers a lifetime warranty if you register the card on-line. Sapphire has been around a long time, and has a good reputation - I have 5 of their cards in use - never any problems, but I have no 5XXX series yet. If you read through the forums, you'll find there were some driver issues with the 5XXX series, but it looks like ATI has fixed them now.

They are both good.

Yes- look for either Sapphire or XFX. If they are significantly more expensive, then get something like Asus, MSI, etc- whichever is the best price.

Not compared with HD5850 but 5750 is still a good card up to 1680x1050 resolution.

Both the 5850 and the 470 are evenly matched with similar price / performance values....tabulating only DX11 performance at high settings, it turned out on release day that the 470 ekked out a 5-4 win in the price / performance category. Then Saphire dropped there price $15 for a few days and tables turned....now the cheapest "name" brand on newegg is $309 which makes the 470 the leader again with a 5-3 lead and 1 tie among the 9 games tested. The 470 does win 8/9 benchies (DX11 high settings @ 1920 x 1200) though the wins are for the most part by a % close to the relative price increases. It also beat the 5870 in 5/9.

Keep in mind that the 470 consumes more power and produces more heat. In a full tower w/ adequately sized PSU, no problem....small tower and light PSU, could be an issue. You also have to weigh that ATi gives you eyefinity but currently has a problem w/ 2D GFX (supposed to be fixed w/ 10.4 drivers), nVidia gives you PhysX, 3D Vision, CUDA and GPGPU abilities.

All in all, it will come down to your particular needs and your particular situation as to which one to buy. However keep in mind that the 5850 is now selling $20 over MSRP and we are comparing it with the 470 at MSRP.....once these are on the shelves, nothing's to sop vendors from charging a premium which I expect will happen in the first days / weeks of availability. OTOH have seen the 480 on preorder at its MSRP so who knows.

you have pm

Ok i have finally decided to go with the 5850 but have one more questions. Which version should i get ? 1) XFX regular 2)XFX black edition 3) sapphire regular
4) sapphire toxic? or anyother if you know of something better

Obviously check the current prices first, but I would go with the sapphire regular. The reason is you are getting one card that you may crossfire later. If you get sapphire toxic now you will pay more and it will likely not be available when you crossfire - the regular is more lkely to be available from sapphire or another mfr. later.

Personal preference based on experieince w/sapphire.

my earlier post

I would suggest NOT getting the black or toxic versions as they are more expensive without really giving you anything more than the basic version. I would suggest XFX, but thats because I have used them more than Sapphire, and they have a double lifetime warranty, so yeah. Either one is fine- pick whichever is the cheapest and you'll be set.

did you only count the stock clocked 5850's, if not then there is the issue that there is only 1 factory OC'ed GTX470

and the stock clocked 5850's stop at about $330