New Video card, what to get?

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You can get a HD4870x2 for $400. The drivers i think by this stage are fairly mature, it just seems that the 4850x2 has a few issues though.

What issues are you talking about? the only issue I know of is the fact that the card is very very long. 11".

Other than that the Drivers are fine. The new 9.3's are what I'm running and I've notice a really nice increase in performance.

It doesn't have any heat issues. I run the fans at manual 50% all the time and the cores never report higher than 50-55C.

It plays every game at 1920x1200 with absolutely no issues. For $280 it's a great bang for your buck.
 
As stated, I got hooked on ATI for a couple of reasons. Reason A: I actually really got into comp gaming with the release of the 6800 series and the x800 series. I had an x800xt, and was very, very, happy. Reason B: The sheer number of nVidia fanboys overwhelmed the amount of ATI, and just to rebel against the popular solution, I chose ATI. Now, I'm not near as biased. Since the 295 is the vastly superior card, is it worth the extra $100.00? That's all that's relevant to me, at this point.
 
I base my opinion off the fact I've always owned nvidia and never had any problems at all. Why stray from what you're used to, when you're happy with where you're at? That being said for my new build I just ordered I bought an hd 4850, lol. Here's to hoping it works great. Another reason I had wanted to stick with nvidia is that all the games I play are "meant to be played with nvidia." I wanted to give ATI a chance though, and at 1336x768 I would hope my hd 4850 will dominate anything.
 
I go with what is best at the time for my budget. Right now that's ATI, my previous 2 builds were nvidia, and the one before that was ATI.

I could care less about company loyalty, even though it may looks like I'm playing for ATI that's only because, I think their cards this gen are better and the Nvidia Fanboys drown you out unless you push hard.

I have 2 4850s in crossfire, which for all intents and purposes is the same thing as a 4850x2, and I can say, that the performance is pretty nice. This is my first multi-gpu setup and I am very happy with it. Scaling in games is good and I can easily blow through all the major titles at my resolution (1680x1050).

Furthermore, recent anandtech benchmarks have sown that with the recent drive updates, ATI cards are performing much better over the Nvidia ones. The 4870 1gig, used to not beat the GTX260, now it beats it in 11 out of 12 tests. that's at low and high resolution. the benchmarks in question take the full spectrum of cards out now so it will take some time to comb over, but from the looks of it, we will have to change our minds on a lot more cards. What helps the 4870 also helps the 4850, and 4850x2 and 4870x2.
 
hmm. Was looking at going with 4850s in crossfire at some point. Unfortunately I was too ancy to wait for the price drops that are supposedly coming, but once they do go down I wouldn't mind slapping a second one in there. Was crossfire relatively easy to set up? I heard two cards was kind of a hassle to mess with.
 
Nah it was cake. Just put in the card, attach the bridge and your good to go. I would recommend updating the drivers to 9.3 once you boot though.

I had some trouble, but that's because I assumed it was more complex than it was and took some extra steps that mess me up.
 
What issues are you talking about?

Mostly driver issues. When i researched it over a month ago i found alot of mediocore reviews on the 4850x2. I sure the drivers are alot better, ATI usually have in the past released drivers that need a bit of optimizing from the start, but through the months get alot better. I was going off what i had read from reviews mostly from when the card came out - this is because follow-up reviews can be hard to find.

And zmatt, ATI has had a reputation for releasing drivers not quite up to scratch. They always get better, as they are now, but there is a reason. As a side note, i was going to go for a 4870 until i dedcided to spend more cash, just not xfire cash!
 
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