that was nvidia's fault... they just made a terrible board until they revised it
boards such as the p35 and 975x were doing great.... if its an intel board... your good
but anyway.. the 4850's i love em, they get the job done, and they get it done well.. and for only about 300 dollars, its better than or on par w/ single gtx280.. so why not?!
the only game it doesnt really do justice in, is crysis... i mean i can still play on a modded very high in dx9 at 1920x1080 and still look smooth, but the 9800gx2 outperforms it by a very small margin because crysis loves nvidia