thats what I will be using when I can start building this freaking rig. UPS claims can take up to 8days and I've just been sitting here staring at this stuff.
So now I'm intrigued in this conversation. I'm planning on getting Vista 64 bit for my build pretty soon but I already have XP 32. So should I save the $109 and up my 4850 to a 4870????
I shouldn't tell you what to do with your money and stuff, but whenever I have a choice between software and hardware, I try to get my software for free and spend my money on my hardware if you know what I mean.
If you have the machine to support it, vista is actually going to perform the same if not better in most games. Vista has much better usage of memory, and is definately faster than xp when it comes to loading stuff. The only reason i keep XP around is that i get a slightly higher (around 5%) score on 3dmark06. But if you already have a copy of xp laying around that you can use, yes, buy the 4870 instead.
My point is that if its a "i have to buy an OS" question, there is 0 reason to BUY xp when you can get vista for the same price or even less in some instances.
And you need 400FPS why? Or even 100FPS. IF you have a flat panel monitor, it can only display 60fps anyway. FPS is useless past what the monitor can display. Unless you are into tearing.