HD 6950s or GTX 570s? GTX 580?

[Skullzak]

Ok... now I'm new on here, I'm building a gaming PC in a couple weeks and will finish in sept. Now, I'll be playing at 1920x1080. I'll play a ton of different games... Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Battlefield, Call Of Duty 4, Counter Strike, free games, Battlefield 3 and so on.

The CPU will be an i5 2500k
RAM will be 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz
The motherboard will be a
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4-B3

EDIT: Will have an 850 Watt Corsair Enthusiast PSU

EDIT: Plan on heavy overclocking, will use stock clocks when not gaming

Should I get 2 HD 6950 1 GB's ($259.99 x2 = $519.98)

2 GTX 570's ($349.99 x2 = $699.98) which as you can see is roughly $100 more per card.

Or

Single GTX 580 = $499.99


My research I've conducted has suggested that the 1GB and 2GB versions of the HD 6950 make absolutely no difference in performance at 1920x1080, sometimes from what I saw the 1GB beat the 2GB at this resolution. I also saw they perform very closely to the GTX 570(s) but are only $520 as opposed to $700.

Then, we have the single GTX 580, which is $500 currently. Should I get the Crossfire setup with the HD 6950's, the SLI setup with the GTX 570's, or a single GTX 580 and add one down the line.... because currently the HD 6950's beats the GTX 580 by ALOT and it's about the same price depending on what the prices are for different brands here.

So, guys, what should I do?

 

[ubercake]

My advice... Get the single best card you can afford and SLI later.

 

[phishy714]

^ agreed.

When you need to upgrade the SLI setup in a year and a half's time, you will be forced to scrap both and start all over.

When your GTX 580 needs an upgrade in a year, just get another one which will be cheaper by then, and make it all last yet another year.