AMD + PCI-Express 2.0 + SLI

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I'm planning on upgrading my video cards and motherboard soon, with my Christmas money, and I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about when of if a Socket AM2 compatible motherboard that supports SLI in PCI-Express 2.0 architecture will come out. I'm planning on buying an 8800GT or the G92 8800GTS, with the possibility of SLI. Of course, AMD likes to only play with Crossfire nowadays, and I really don't want an HD 3870 or two, no matter how much cheaper it may be.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition @ 2.9GHz
4GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) SDRAM
500GB Samsung SATA Hard Drive
ASRock ALiveNF6G-DVI mATX Motherboard
Geforce 7950GX2 1GB GDDR3 Video Card
 
the 3870 in cross fire is not just cheaper, but performs better on average then sli 8800gt's, with a few exeptions. alltho crossfire 3870's do outperform the 8800gt in sli on crysis. right now tho there arent any sli am2+ mother boards available.
 
I'm not entirely sure I want to go with ATi, though. Lately, it seems that they've been having a lot of heat and power-consumption issues, but I could be mistaken. All I want is to play Project Origin on full EVERYTHING at 1600x1200 smoothly, and everything else the future holds.

Plus, Anantech's benchmark claims that two HD 3850s in Crossfire only bring it up to the performance of a single 8800GTX. Surely two HD 3870s isn't much different? You would think two 8800GTs would perform much better than a single 8800GTX and the ATi Crossfire equivalent, using this information.
 
crossfire 3870 are better and cheaper than 8800gt SLI.
though crossfire/ATI boards are hard to find for some reason
all the ones i found won't specify dual x16
what one is APOK using?
 
the 3870's in crossfire have scored over 20k in 3dmark 06, there a huge step up from the 3850, more unified shaders, and what not, higher clock rate, higher memory bandwith gddr4 not 3 512mb of it. the highest ive seen 2 8800gt's score was 19k and thats by vdub on our forums, the 3870's are very cool aswell and use lower level of power as there 55nm. any x38 mobo will do 16x 16
 
the 3870's in crossfire have scored over 20k in 3dmark 06, there a huge step up from the 3850, more unified shaders, and what not, higher clock rate, higher memory bandwith gddr4 not 3 512mb of it. the highest ive seen 2 8800gt's score was 19k and thats by vdub on our forums, the 3870's are very cool aswell and use lower level of power as there 55nm. any x38 mobo will do 16x 16
isn't x38 intel?
 
Any money you save on the HD 3870s you make up for with ridiculously expensive motherboards, it seems.

I may be convinced, if it can be proven that the HD3870s outperform the best of NVIDIA, or at least come very close to, with cheaper overall spendings.

EDIT: And yes, I'll be needing a Socket AM2 (or AM2+, I suppose) board for this, unless I have a serious urge to upgrade my processor, too. Then again, if I went Intel, I'd want to go DDR3, as well, which means dumping more money on RAM. That's the reason I want to stick with my current processor and RAM.
 
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it seems it beats the 8800gt SLI every time except if you add AA
 
AnandTech is a pro-Nvidia/Intel party, big time. Take that in consideration when you look at their postings.

The 38xx are behind the 8800's in AA, but do great everywhere else. I am hoping to move to one myself.
 
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