Hi guys, I just got paid, so it's time to build an awesome new rig (eating is not important). Here's what I'm thinking:
This build will use three monitors, probably
Asus VE228H's, in portrait mode.
I'll be doing a lot of gaming on this rig, and I'm not talkin' about Farmville. The most graphics-intensive game I play right now is probably Skyrim (with fifty gazillion mods), although Borderlands 2 can get pretty...pretty (and Physx!). Basically, I'm looking for a graphics card solution that can chew up games at max settings for the next few years. I definitely want two, count 'em, two graphics cards though. Two years ago, when I made my current comp, I built it with two GeForce 470s. I sold one to a friend after a few months, thinking I'd never need it. But now...yeah, I kinda wish I had two of those bad boys...
Buying isn't urgent: I'm looking to build this computer sometime at the end of the year, when I move into my new place (so I actually have someplace to put it). I'll probably be buying parts from newegg or amazon, whichever is cheaper at the time of purchase.
And finally, the rest of my comp will look something like this: Antec 1200 case, core i7 3770K processor (unless someone can talk me out of it. Come on, it's not THAT much more expensive than an i5), 12GB RAM, any mobo with usb 3.0 and SATA III, couple o' SSDs, 850-1000W PS.
Now, down to the meat of the question: GeForce or Radeon? I'll get this out of the way right now, I'm not spending more than 300 dollars for a graphics card. I mean really, that's just stupid. Because I plan on getting two and SLIing or CrossFiring, even a 25 dollar difference in price can be a huge impact on the overall price of the build. Now, this probably puts me down into the GeForce 570 vs Radeon 7870 range, unless 670s and 7950s go on sale (please, Santa?). Now I've checked specs, I've checked benchmarks, and I'm always baffled how a seemingly better card (the 7870s faster clock, more memory) can get its ass kicked by a seemingly inferior card (the 570 isn't even 2GB man, what the hell). This makes me a little reticent to buy from AMD, as well as the fact that I've always been a GeForce man, and it's always worked for me in the past.
So then! What do you think?