Which graphics card should I choose???

It's really:
What motherboard?
depends on the motherboard compatibility.
I would rather have 16X card and 16X motherboard.

The list of approved video cards is posted on the motherboard manufacturer website.

why are you looking to purchase such old cards?are you getting them for really cheap from a friend or something? what is your budget? maybe we can help you find a better card for the price...also soundguruman given that he has an AMD fx-4170 cpu I would HOPE that he has a PCIE x16 slot in his system lol

From what I understand, both of these cards are PCI-E x16...

My understanding is that both of these cards are PCI-E x16. I don't even know if other versions of these cards exist (PCI-E x8 or AGP versions) Both are really cheap, but the Radeon HD 4850 512MB is $15 more. All I want to know is which card is better, and if the 4850 is better, would it be worth the extra $15? (only if it's a better card)

Is the 3870 X2 really that big of a card? Well, I guess because it's a dual-GPU card, and an old dual-GPU card at that.

Yeah, I've been taking a look at gaming videos of people using an HD 4850 512MB card, and I'm actually quite amazed at what this 512MB card can achieve. It just doesn't make sense to me how a 512MB single-GPU card can achieve better performance than a dual-GPU 1GB card. Is it because the 3870 X2 isn't a "true" dual-GPU card (in the sense that it doesn't actively use both GPU's at once all the time, which was what I heard about?) Not saying that it's true, because I've never owned a 3870 X2, but I just keep hearing that the the 3870 X2 doesn't use both GPU's effectively and efficiently due to driver issues and such...

yea it comes down to the drivers and software...the 3870x2 can use both gpu's at a time but it needs drivers that will utilize this and a game that supports this as well...and alot of games have issues with that...there is problems with that even to this day....the gtx 690 will still encounter games that are not friendly to it.

Best answer selected by firinmylazerman.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey