GTX or ATI?

well 6850 doesnt compare to the 680, 7970 ghz edition compares to the 680

im aware i meant currently i have a asus 6850, and i was wondering if it would make sense to go with one card? or to crossfire to get the same performance my goal down the line when all in all is done, to run atleast to ultra on battlefield across eyefinity or nvdias equivilant

I think you'll be best off to replace the card instead of crossfire. The main reason why is when mutli-gpu setups don't work, you're stuck with single card performance. At worst, a non-functioning multi-gpu configuration can actually give you worse performance.

With WoW specifically, I have seen it benched with mutli-gpu working, however in my experience (4890x2 & 6870x2) i haven't gotten it to run. I had the pairing working in plenty other games though.

WoW is also very CPU bound, and adding in the extra CPU cycles to run the second card might hurt your performance more than you'd gain from the added GPU muscle.

I'd either grab a 7950/7970 or a 670/680. Or, if you can wait, hold out another 4 months and grab a Radeon 8 series, or a GTX 7 series. They're supposed to be out in Q2 2013. Don't forget there are usually wicked sales right after Christmas.

These cards get my vote http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

yeah id probaly wait till Q2, just because the fact i want to get a car ( little more important lol) soon as that is taken care of my priority is rebuilding my pc

Big +1 there to dannoddd. For comparison, dual 6850s would deliver performance comparable to a GTX660 or GTX660 Ti. The GTX670 will deliver near enough identical performance to the GTX680 and 7970, but for a fair bit less money. Best thing would be to wait until April or whenever nVidia's new line launches though. Even if you pick up a Radeon 8000 card, best to wait for nVidia competition to drive down prices, like with this year's range.

Some thoughts for you:

1. If you want a graphics upgrade now, then go ahead. Next spring, we should see the GTX7xx and amd 8xx cards. If they then seem attractive to you, just sell whatever you buy today and replace it with the next best thing.

2. I am not a fan of sli/cf when a good single card will do the job. Benchmarks look good, but gameplay may be subject to microstuttering. Read about it here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stut...

3. So long as you are gaming on a single monitor, there is no need to disable the side monitors. They take very little resource. I have a second 2560 x 1600 monitor, and I experimented withattaching the side monitor to a cheap second card. There was no noticeable difference, so I reverted to having both 2560 x 1600 monitors attached to a single GTX680.

4. In theory, a 7970 and GTX680 are comparable cards. Using synthetic benchmarks, minimum frame rates and average frame rates might seem to be comparable, and perhaps an advantage to the amd card. But, I recently read a comparison of a GTX660ti and a 7950 which makes me think that we have been missing something.
That is consistency of response times. It seems that the nvidia card was much more consistent. Don't know if this applies to a GTX670 or GTX680, but I think it might.
Read this and see if you think it applies to you:
http://techreport.com/review/23981/radeon-hd-7950-vs-ge...

5. For your $550 budget, go ahead and buy a GTX680. It is a big jump over your current 6850. I favor the EVGA units with the direct exhaust coolers. They get the heat directly out the back of the case.
Some will say that a GTX670 is a better buy. They are probably right if the extra $70-$100 for a GTX680 is important to you.
Either a GTX670 or GTX680 will run triple monitor gaming. You will at least be able to try it out and determine if a next gen graphics upgrade is needed.

6. I would not buy a 50gb ssd. A SSD will slow down when it approaches full. You will only have about 42gb available for the os, leaving no room for anything else.
Some files really need to go on the "C" drive. I suggest looking at a 120gb ssd, or perhaps even larger.
Samsung is selling out their old 830 line in favor of the cheaper to build 840 units. See if you can score one while they are still available. Otherwise, samsung 840 or Intel 330/335 units would be my pick for reliability.

Some excellent points there ^ and entirely agree about the Samsung 830 - really excellent drive for your money. The 840 Pro is the fastest consumer SSD out, but it is a fair bit more expensive. Thanks for that Tech Report link, interesting stuff!